Together alone
by Just a certain redhead
Summary: The gang goes on a trip to Europe, but something goes wrong: their plane crashes, the pilot dies, and the six of them are stuck on an uninhabited island. How do they survive, and more importantly: how do they get home? This could be a VERY long story, if I manage to keep continuing. It's gonna be mainly bade, maybe Cabbie, and friendship between all characters.
1. Trip

**Ehm... so I'm still trying to find out how this site works. This is my first fic, and the first story I show to anyone except my parents or little sister. So PLEASE be nice! And I'm not English by the way, so I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes. I'm only in my third year of secondary school... **

They were in class, waiting for Sikowitz. Cat and Jade were having a discussion about the best thing to wear to the party they were having on the first day of the summer vacation. André was singing a new song he wrote, and Beck and Tori were listening. Robbie was staring at Cat nervously: he wanted to ask her to go to the party with him, but didn't have the nerve to do so. Cat was, as always, totally oblivious of his feelings for her.

They didn't look up strangely when Sikowitz entered the room through the window. They were all used to their teacher's "interesting choices".

"Good morning, class!" Sikowitz said in a serious tone. It was quite difficult to take him seriously though, as he was, as always, barefoot and dressed like he was homeless.

"I have special news for some of you," Sikowitz said, knowing this would earn him some attention. And indeed the gang looked up, knowing Sikowitz's special news probably had something to do with them (it always did).

Sikowitz took a coconut out of his bag and drank it's milk. The gang looked at him in expectation.

"So... what's the news?" Tori said when he didn't attempt to tell them.

"What news?" their teacher said confused.

"You just said you had very special news for some of us," Robbie explained.

"Ooh," Sikowitz remembered. "Right. Tori, Cat, Beck, André, Robbie and Jade, congratulations. I have chosen you to go with me on... Pam pam paaaam..." He was silent for a moment, and the gang looked at him anxiously. Their teacher's plans weren't always as... safe.

"A three-week trip to Europe!" Sikowitz said enthusiastic. The gang looked at each other, amazed.

"Yay, I love Europe!" Cat yelled.

"All right, what's the catch?" André said, finding the whole situation a little too good. Sikowitz looked at him innocently.

"Catch?"

"Just tell us," said Jade impatiently. The teacher sighed.

"Alright, alright. You have to perform twice a week in my cousin's village. In return you can stay at his place, and guess what? He owns a plane!" Tori looked at him blankly.

'That's it?" she said. "A free trip to Europe, just if we do a few performances?" The teacher nodded.

"So, you guys will do it?"

"Of course we'll do it!"Tori yelled.

"So when are we leaving?" Beck asked. Sikowitz thought about it for a minute.

"I was thinking the first day of the vacation," he said.

"But then we'll miss the party," said Cat disappointed. Sikowitz sighed.

"The day after, then. Don't forget to ask your parents, and I'll hear from you tomorrow. Class dismissed!" And with those words he climbed out the window.

"We haven't even begun the lesson yet," Robbie remarked.

* * *

They were all allowed to go to Europe.

"Does anybody know to which country we are going?" Tori asked. They all shook their head.

"I hope it's France," Cat said. "I love baguettes!" At that moment Sikowitz came in, through the door this time.

"Good news, we can all go," Tori told him.

"Yes!" Sikowitz yelled, jumping into the air. He coughed when he saw the whole class stare at him awkwardly.

"So, let's start class."

Tori

"No, Trina, you can't come." I put my suitcase on my bed.

"Can you leave my room now? I'm trying to pack." Trina had been trying to convince me she HAD to come with us for more than an hour.

"But I'll be the star of the show!" she complained. I got up and pushed her out of my room. Then I slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Sisters," I sighed. Once again I wondered if Trina really thought she was that talented.

I started to pack. Sikowitz had told us we'd stay with his family in the Netherlands, some small country way to far north for me to like it, and after that we'd make a tour through Germany, France, Spain and Italy. That I was really looking forward to.

It did mean I had to take all kinds of clothes. I'd found on the internet June was the wettest month in the Netherlands, while Spain's summers were dry, and even warmer than ours. I looked into my closet and picked the clothes I thought would be most useful.

Nobody

The remaining weeks had passed without much happening. They were standing at the airport, once again waiting for their teacher, when Tori's phone rang.

"It's Sikowitz," she said while taking the call. The others all got closer, trying to hear what he said.

"Hi, Tori," Sikowitz said in a fake cheerful tone.

"Sikowitz! Where are you? The plane's leaving in less than an hour!" The teacher coughed.

"Well, it seems I um... I got uh... hung up. But you guys can take the flight anyway. I'll join you as soon as possible." With that he hung up. Tori looked at her friends.

"It seems we're on our own for now."

**I hope you guys liked it. And I'd love some reviews, they are definately gonna help me continue. Ideas are always welcome!**

**Xxx Red**


	2. Crash

**I just posted chapter 1 like 10 minutes ago and I already got a review! Man, I feel awesome :) I already had this chapter finished, I was just waiting to see if someone was interested in the story. Guess someone was. Thankyouthankyouthankyou you just totally made my day!**

Jade

Our flight was transmitted, so we went to the gate. Since it was a private plane there was no line, and all we had to do was show our passports. We had to walk down a long hall, and then we reached a small door that said "private flights". Had to be ours. We opened it, and walked outside.

'This way!' someone called, and we followed him. He led us to a small plane, that looked like it could collapse any second. I felt like my heart stopped beating. _Someone please tell me we got the wrong plane_.

'Hello everyone, I'm Michael and I'll be your pilot.' I stared at him coldly, and I saw him go pale. Works every time.

'This... piece of garbage is our flight?' I said, still not believing my eyes. I was gonna kill Sikowitz when he returned. Michael the pilot nodded, and I saw him look at me with a terrified expression.

'Jade, leave the guy alone,' Beck said softly, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards him.

'I'm not flying in that thing,' I told him. I hated planes, and I wasn't planning on entering one that looked like this.

'I'm sure they wouldn't let us fly in it if it wasn't safe,' Beck assured me, but I could see he had some doubts too.

'Ehm, you can get in now,' said Michael, who apparently had found his voice back. I protested at first, but when I saw everybody get in I had no choice. I still didn't trust it, though. We'd have to cross the freakin' Atlantic in this thing!

'You'd better be a good pilot,' I hissed at Michael before getting in. When we got inside the plane looked a lot better; not perfect, but sufficient. It improved my mood just a little.

Robbie

I'd always hated planes. Once, when I was little, I went to the airport with my parents. We got a special tour, we could see the planes from a really small distance. But there had been a small communication mistake, and one of the planes started it's motors. I was so startled I dropped my favorite teddy bear, and we had to hurry away. I never got it back. So, now that I actually had to fly in one (which I'd done before of course, but still) I didn't feel all that comfortable. The accident had given me the idea plane motors could suddenly start and stop by itself, which I knew wasn't true, but I was still scared the motors would suddenly stop while we were in mid-air. I didn't tell the others bout it, afraid they would laugh. I knew at least Jade would.

André

We made a stop in New York, to fill the tank of the plane. Really surprising it'd been able to fly this far without stopping. I started to get a little more confidence in it's ability to fly us across the Atlantic. We had to wait at the airport for about an hour, so we got ourselves some coffee and lunch. The flight had taken us about six hours, so we could all use some. Our next flight would take even longer, more than seven hours.

'You're sitting next to Cat,' I told Tori. Cat had been even more hyperactive than usual, and she'd been chattering to me almost non-stop. Tori looked at Cat unhappily; the redhead was talking about some movie she saw, her coffee cup already empty.

We spent the remainder of the hour playing card games, and before we knew it we had to get back into the plane.

Beck

I was glad Jade hadn't refused to get on the plane. I knew she didn't like flying, and it's true this plane really didn't look very reliable, but we all wanted to go to Europe, Jade as well. So I just tried to comfort her as much as possible without anyone noticing, holding her hand the full six hours. I saw her look outside with every little bit of turbulence, but she was Jade, so she didn't say anything. One of the many things I admired about her.

After the break we all got back, and Jade didn't even hesitate before entering. I smiled. I knew she was still scared, although she'd never admit she'd been scared in the first place, and she'd never show anything close to fear to our friends. I sat down next to her, and when I tried to grab her hand she pulled away. I stroked her hair instead.

'Seven hours flying and we'll be in Europe,' I whispered. She didn't react.

'Unless we crash in the middle of the ocean,' I said teasing. I saw her stiffen, but she still didn't say anything. If we'd have been alone she'd have yelled at me, but right now she was trying to keep up the "cold and fearless Jade" image. I grinned and leaned back in my seat.

Jade

The flight to New York was bad, but not as bad as I'd expected. True, I was startled every time the plane went down and I had to listen to Cat's endless chattering, but I could sit next to Beck, and we didn't crash.

I was glad when our break was over: I wanted to be in Europe as soon as possible and have three amazing, plane-less weeks. When we got back to the plane I was determined not to show any fear again. I knew Beck noticed, and I tried to ignore him when he started to push my limits. I couldn't help my nervous reaction when he talked about crashing. How could he speak of that so lightly?

We'd been flying for three hours when we heard a strange noise.

'What's that?' I asked, and I couldn't help the panic in my voice. Beck, who was sitting at the window this time, looked outside.

'The motor is smoking,' he said seriously. I tried to find the slightest bit of a smile in his expression, but I already knew I wouldn't find it, even if he was acting. We suddenly went down, and kept going down.

'Beck Oliver, if you're lying to me you're going to regret it,' I said, while trying to look out of the window myself.

'I'm not lying,' he said, at the moment I saw the smoke. I felt my face turn white. 'We're going to crash!' Robbie squeaked. The others had noticed the smoke to. I felt the plane start to decrease level, faster and faster. I heard people scream, and I screamed myself, too.

'Brace yourselves!' I heard Michael call. I grabbed Beck's hand. I was the only one who still had a safety belt on, and when the plane started to turn upside down I was the only one able to stay in my seat. I heard a nauseating crash when my friends landed on what had once been the roof. We were still screaming, everyone except Beck. And Cat, I noticed.

I looked at my best friend. Her eyes were closed, and she was being tossed around by the still turning plane.

'We're going to land!' Michael called. He had a strange definition of landing.

When we hit the water I was sure I was going to die. I knew Michael had gone as low as possible when he noticed something was wrong, but I didn't know how much. The crash wasn't as hard as I'd expected, and it didn't kill me either. In fact, I had nothing more than a few bruises.

We were sinking, but the plane had somehow managed to stay in one piece, and the water came in slowly. When I got loose, I looked for my friends. They'd all been thrown across the plane. I heard Beck groan.

'Beck!' I yelled. I noticed the plane had stopped sinking, but it wasn't important to me. What was important was that Beck was safe. I crawled closer to him, but I stopped when I saw Cat. She was lying still, eyes still closed.

'Beck, can you get here?' I asked. A moment later I saw Beck's head appear between the seats.

'Are you okay?' he asked me, and I wanted to cry. I'd never been more happy to see him.

'I am, but Cat isn't,' I quickly told him, while bending over my friend. I felt her pulse. There was a heartbeat, but slow. Too slow.

'We have to get her out,' I said, lifting her in the meantime. The plane had apparently landed on something, because I was able to stand up. I saw Beck shake André's shoulder, and his friend opened his eyes.

'You okay?' Beck asked, and André nodded.

'Just bruised.' Beck went to look at Robbie, while André checked on Tori. I still stood there with Cat in my arms. I somehow managed to reach the cockpit, where I saw Michael hanging upside down in his seat. When I felt his pulse, there was no heartbeat. I stumbled away from him as fast as I could.

'Are they okay?' I asked Beck anxiously, not telling him what I'd just seen. He nodded, and it was like my heart suddenly started beating again. I searched for one of the windows. I mostly saw water, but there was a small bit of light coming through.

'I think we landed next to an island,' I said. Had we really been that lucky? I walked to the door, and tried to open it.

'To much pressure,' Beck said. He'd gotten Robbie to wake up, and I saw Tori standing too. Beck and André tried the door together, and it finally opened. A splash of water entered the small plane, almost throwing me off my feet. I managed to grab the door, and looked outside. I was right. We were on an island. Our plane had landed right next to it, only partly under water. I remembered to pick up my bag before crawling outside.

**This chapter was a bit longer. Hope you liked it! Keep reviewing!**

**Xxx Red**


	3. Island

**This one's kinda short. But I've got the next part ready, so as soon as someone reviews I'll upload it. Thanks for all the AMAZING reviews! I've read them so many times, they make me soooooooo happy!**

Tori

Wow. That's really all I could think. Wow, we were in a plane crash. Wow, we were still alive. And wow, we'd been so enormously lucky! We all sat down in the sand of the beach. Other than Cat, nobody seemed to be badly hurt. But wait!

"Where's Michael?" I asked. Everybody looked around. Jade cleared her throat.

"He, ehm... didn't make it." We all looked at each other in shock.

"You mean he's... dead?" Nobody wanted to believe that, but Jade nodded. Not even a sarcastic remark.

"Let's... have a minute of silence." The quiet was rather creepy, and I was glad when the minute was over.

Beck

So we were stranded. And the pilot was dead. And Cat was hurt. Great.

"Before we do anything, we should get our bags," I said, trying to keep thinking straight.

"Cat's hurt," Robbie said, like that meant we couldn't do anything but stay with her. I tried not to sound annoyed.

"Okay, you stay with Cat, then André, Tori and I can get the bags." Robbie sighed unhappily.

"All right." For a moment Jade looked like she was going to protest, but she kept her words in and turned to Cat.

"You comin'?" André and Tori were already halfway there.

"Yeah."

Jade

I had no idea what to do with Cat. I couldn't see where she'd been hurt. At least there was no blood. That would normally have disappointed me, but I didn't want her to be seriously injured. She was my friend, after all.

"Cat, wake up," I said, and softly shook her shoulder. She groaned. At least she was alive.

"Cat, come on!" Robbie sat down next to me.

"Don't do that,' I said when he attempted to shake her too.

"But you just..."

"I know what I just did!" Ugh, that guy could be so annoying.

"Uhm... shouldn't we clean the wound or something?" he asked me. Like I knew.

"What wound?" He looked at Cat.

"Right." He looked like he was going to cry. I hoped he would. I also hoped Cat would wake up soon. That was kind of contradicting.

André

We opened the plane door, which was half underwater. Beck went inside first. How could that guy stand to be in one room with a dead pilot?

"Hey, if you guys don't wanna come, I'll just hand you the bags."

"Yeah, I guess that'll go faster." Tori agreed. She obviously didn't want to go inside either.

Beck handed us the bags, which were completely soaked.

"They'll dry in the sun," Tori aimlessly remarked. Beck stepped out of the plane. We all waited, knowing there was something else we had to do.

"Should we bury him?" I asked. That would be kind of difficult. Beck shook his head.

"Would take hours. We could just... Push the plane further into the ocean, and it'll sink." That seemed like a good idea. We pushed as hard as we could, and finally we felt the plane slip away. We watched as it disappeared underwater.

"Good bye, Michael," Tori said. "We'll tell everyone about how you saved us."

"Amen," I ended. We walked back to our friends.

Tori

Truth be told, the island was beautiful. The perfect place for a vacation. Palm trees on the beaches, a warm, white, sand beach, a forest more land inwards... It could have been some kind of fairytale. But it wasn't, of course, and our friend was hurt.

"How is she?" André asked when we reached our friends. Jade shrugged.

"Nothing different." That was both good and bad news. We all sat down around the redhead, waiting for her to wake up, since nobody knew what else we could do. We were all worried, about Cat, and also about how to go on now. What if nobody found us? If we'd be stuck here forever?

**Once again, thanks so much for reading! And please review.**

**Xxx Red**


	4. Let's not fight

**Yay, already a review! Here's the next chapter, as I promised, hope you like it :)**

Cat**  
**I opened my eyes. My friends were all standing or sitting around me, and I was lying on the ground with my head in Jade's lap. I felt a pain in my head, so I touched the spot, and I felt a bruise. Then I looked around again.

"Palm trees!" I loved palm trees, they were so nice, and they reminded me of warm beaches and they sometimes had coconuts in them. I saw those did.

"How'r you feelin'?" André asked. I thought about that.

"My head hurts..." They all looked worried, even Jade.

"Can I have a coconut?" I liked coconuts. They were brown, and round, and hairy, and Sikowitz always drunk out of them. But why were we on a beach with coconuts?

"Jadey, where are we?" She looked a little annoyed I called her Jadey, because only Beck was allowed to call her that. But I liked the way it sounded, so I said it anyway.

"We crashed," Beck explained._ Crashed? What does he mean?_

"Into a tree? One time, my brother crashed into a tree with his car, and then..." Jade interrupted me.

"Cat, we were in a plane crash. Now we're all stuck on an island that seems to have nothing else than COCONUTS, and we have NO way of getting back!" She yelled at me and looked really upset, and she got up but my head was still in her lap and I fell down and my head hit the sand and I yelped because it hurt. Beck got up too, and Jade ran off into the forest and he followed her. He looked at me, apologetic, but I was used to Jade behaving like this, so I smiled at him to let him know I understood and I was okay.

When they'd both disappeared between the trees, I looked at my remaining friends.

"So... do you still want a coconut?" Tori asked. I liked Tori, she was always so nice and funny, although she said really stupid things sometimes, but that was kind of funny, too. She was nice to Jade as well, but Jade never thought she was funny. Sometimes I really didn't understand Jade.

"Yes, I love coconuts!" I think André went to get me one, because not much later he handed me a nice hairy coconut with a hole in it. We didn't have any straws, and the coconut hairs tickled my face. I giggled. I already liked it here.

Jade  
"No!" I screamed as loud as I could.

"Jade, listen to me." Beck tried to calm me down, but I wouldn't let him.

"No, leave me alone!" How could he try to calm me, tell me everything was okay? Nothing was okay. We were stuck here, who knows for how long. We weren't able to contact anyone, and if they wouldn't accidently stumble upon us we would freakin' DIE here! Beck caught up with me.

"Jadey..."

"Don't call me that." I hated when people called me that.

"Jade, it's no use to run off like this." He grabbed my shoulder, and I stopped.

"I don't wanna talk." He pulled his arms around me, like he always did when I was upset. I yelled at him, tried to get loose.

"It's gonna be okay, just calm down." I closed my eyes and finally stopped protesting. He was the only one who could ever calm me down. I let him pull me down on to the ground, my eyes still closed, his arms still around me. He comforted me like only he could.

"We're gonna make the best out of his," he whispered.

Beck  
I knew I had to be extremely careful when Jade was in such a mood. A small mistake could easily piss her off even more. I pulled her close to me, not allowing her to get away. She'd just get lost in the forest.

"We're gonna make the best of this," I whispered. I knew this was gonna be hard for her. Jade didn't like being around other people. Maybe she just didn't like people. To be stuck with others, even if they were our friends... This was going to be quite a challenge, for all of us. Our friendship would be tested, and it would either become unbreakable, or break. I like challenges. They are what makes life interesting.

Jade  
I don't know how long we sat there, but it was a really long time, so it might have been hours. He finally loosened his grip.

"Are you okay?" He sounded really worried. I didn't answer. I was mad at him, although I wasn't sure why.

"Jade, come on." I still ignored him.

"What are you trying to accomplish by acting like this?" What WAS I trying? What could I still try? We were in the middle of nowhere!

"There is just no way," I said, 'NO FREAKIN' WAY we're gonna be able to survive here on our own. If they don't find us..."

"They will."

"If they don't just accidentally stumble upon us there's NO way for us to get back home and we're gonna Die here!" He obviously hadn't calmed me down.

"Jade, we CAN survive. Of course we can. You can't give up hope, not now, not ever." Very touching. But it didn't mean anything. Not to me.

"It's useless to hope for something that'll never happen," I hissed. I got up and walked away, leaving Beck behind. He didn't follow me.

Beck  
It was no use to chase after her again. I hadn't been able to calm her down, so I'd have to wait untill she did so by herself. That could take some time. But I had to make sure she wouldn't get lost. Everything looked the same here.

"Jade!" I yelled.

"Let's go back to the beach before we can't find it anymore." She didn't respond.

"Jade, I know you're mad, but PLEASE come with me." Still no response. I started to get worried. Was she too far away to hear me? I walked in the direction she'd gone to.

"Jade?" I looked around.

"Jade, where are you? Please answer!" She didn't. Suddenly I heard a scream.

"Jade!" I hurried towards the sound. I didn't see her at first, but then I found her. She was on the ground, holding her leg.

"What happened?" She looked at me angrily.

"What do you think happened? I fell!" I carefully helped her up. She twisted in pain when she tried to stand on her left foot.

"Let me help you," I said worried, trying to support her. She refused and pulled away.

"I'm not a cripple!" She tried to walk again, but almost fell.

"I think you pretty much are," I said, while helping her regain her balance. She gave me a hatefull look.

"Come on, just lean on me." She still hesitated, but she apparently realized she wouldn't make it out on her own, since she grabbed my shoulder with a cranky expression.

"Whatever. Just take me to the beach."

André  
We'd been waiting for more than two hours, according to my watch. I wasn't completely sure if it still worked; it'd gotten pretty wet. Finally Beck and Jade returned.

"What happened?" Tori asked when she noticed how Jade leaned on him.

"She fell," Beck explained.

"Ow. Is it bad?"

"I hardly consider falling to be a good thing, Vega." Jade's mood obviously hadn't improved.

"So!" I said "Who wants a coconut?" I really just tried to lighten the mood.

'NO ONE wants a coconut!" Jade answered.

"No, I want a coconut!" Cat yelled. The kid had had at least five coconuts already.

"Yeah, me too," Robbie said. He was in a really good mood now that Cat seemed to be okay. I grinned at Jade.

"Okay, anyone else?" Beck shook his head, and Jade looked at me like I'd just gone crazy.

"No thanks," Tori said, so I walked to the nearest palm tree and got coconuts for Robbie and Cat.

**Maybe, if you ask really nicely, I can upload the next one today. But it's not finished yet. So you might have to wait untill tomorow. And reviews wil definately make me work faster!**

**Xxx Red**


	5. Nighttime

**Another shortie. Just how I imagined their first night on the island would be.**

Tori  
We sat in a circle, nobody knew what to do. It was pretty late already; it was dark.

"Can you guys sing me a song?" Cat squeaked. She was lying on Jade's sleeping bag, the only one that wasn't completely soaked.

"Yeah, sure, li'l Red!'" Andre said, excited to have something to do.

"What song you wanna hear?" Cat thought for a second.

"That song from the diddly-bobs." Jade groaned.

"Yeah! Because once wasn't enough torture!"

"O poo. The diddly-bobs were fun!"

"Come on Jadey, Cat's hurt," Beck tried to persuade her.

"Fine, whatever!" she snapped, and André started the song. By the time it was finished Cat was asleep.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"Let's sing another song! We could do my broken glass song?" Robbie asked hopefully.

"Yeah, or I could cut your head off with my scissors?" Jade threatened. Beck sighed.

"Babe, as long as we're stuck here, let's all try to get along, okay?" I felt like I had to do something to stop an argument from breaking out.

"Here I am, once again..." I started my favorite song, and one by one the others joined in.

Jade  
Like it wasn't enough torture to be stuck on a (seemingly) deserted island with Robbie and Vega, two of the people I disliked most. Especially Vega, Robbie didn't actually interest me much.

I was pretty sure it couldn't get any worse. But nooooo, Cat HAD to make us sing a freakin' CHILDREN SONG! And Beck had apparently decided to side with anyone but me today. He tried to calm me down when I was about to kill Robbie, and then of course Vega had to start that annoying song of hers... It was better than doing nothing, anyway.

André

We filled the evening with songs. They seemed to drive away the worries and fears we'd had all day, which were made even worse by the cold and dark of the night. But when we were all tired, they came back even worse than before.

Imagine lying in the sand of an unknown beach, surrounded by darkness, not knowing if you'll ever be able to go home. Believe me, it's terrible. The silence was pressing, but I didn't want to disturb it. It was deep in the night, after all. Meaning I was left alone with my fears.

I wondered what would happen if no one would find us. How long would we be able to survive on our own? We'd have to find some kind of food, of course. And shelter. It must rain here sometimes.

But even if we survived, what was the use if we were stuck here? I might never see grandma again. She must be so worried! That was enough reason for me to go on forever. I just hoped the others wouldn't give up.

**Review and see more soon!**

**Xxx Red**


	6. Another day

**Sorry, took a while for me to finish this. Their first whole day on the island... How do they fill it?**

Tori  
Needless to say, nobody slept very well that night. Except for Cat, but she was hurt, so she didn't really count. Since we slept in the sand, we all woke up stiff and kind of cold.

"What's the time?" Robbie asked. André looked at his watch.

"About five in the morning." I groaned, and I wasn't the only one. We'd all fallen asleep after midnight.

"So, what are we gonna do today?" Beck asked when everybody was awake.

"I guess we should... build a big fire or something to show people we're here?" I suggested.

"How are we supposed to do that? You got some matches in your pocket?" Jade was very cranky. Or that's what Beck said, I couldn't really tell the difference between this and her normal behavior.

"Well... we could try rubbing sticks against each other?"

"Yay, like in Madagascar with the crazy giraffe!" Cat pointlessly added.

"Yeah, cause that's gonna work," Jade sarcasticly said. I sighed.

"Do you have a better idea?" She didn't react.

"No, I didn't think so." So it was decided. André and Beck went into the forest to search for dry wood, and the rest of us would stay here, since Jade still couldn't walk properly and somebody needed to keep an eye on Cat. Meaning I was stuck with a hyperactive Cat, a girl who hated me, and Robbie. Great.

André  
There was lots and lots of dry wood.

"Doesn't it ever rain here?" I asked my friend. He raised his eyebrow.

"Do you expect me to answer that?" We walked about fifty meters into the forest.

"Hey look, bananas!" There were at least a hundred trees filled with nice-looking yellow fruits.

"Great! Now at least we won't starve to death." It sounded a little to serious.

"Dang, man, you're starting to sound like Jade!" He looked at me.

"Well, maybe she's actually right sometimes." I nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, now that we found something other than coconuts, I say we take some with us." He agreed with me on that, and we carried as much bananas and wood as we could back to the beach. As fast as possible, to make sure Jade didn't kill anyone. Or at least that was my reason.

Jade  
I hated this beach. I hated not being able to walk. I hated Beck for leaving me here with Vega, Robbie and Cat. And I hated this STUPID island. I wondered if Sikowitz had gotten the news yet. Would he feel bad? I certainly hoped so.

"Hey Jade, do you want a coconut?" Vega yelled.

"They are really, really good!" Cat added. Just the fact that they wanted me to have one was enough for me not to. Although I was really thirsty... I'd just wait for Beck to return and get me one.

Cat  
This was so much fun! We could just run through the sand and swim and drink coconut milk and build sandcastles and do whatever we wanted! The others said they were going to build a big fire, which I didn't understand because it was already very warm. Some people are really weird. Like my brother. One time, my mom asked if he wanted an egg, and he just took one and ate it before she could cook it. He got very sick. I don't like eggs. I do like coconuts. So I was very happy there were a lot of coconuts and no eggs on the island.

Tori  
The morning passed slowly. Cat was her usual overexcited self, and Jade was, indeed, very cranky, criticizing everything I did. Lucky for me Robbie was there to distract Cat.  
Beck and André returned pretty soon, but I was already sick and tired of Jade's complaining. And I was starving. So the load of bananas the boys were carrying looked really appealing.

"Hey guys, I thought you were gonna get wood," I said, hungrily staring at the bananas.

"We were, but we found this on the way. Thought we'd bring you some," André explained.

"I bet you guys already had some," Jade remarked. Beck looked at her.

"How's your foot?"

"Fine, and don't change the subject!"

"You guys!" I came in between "We have FOOD, let's just celebrate!" It was really incredible how easily those two could start an argument. Beck nodded in agreement, but Jade apparently wasn't happy with the surprise.

"And you just HAD to take bananas, didn't you? You know I hat those!"

"Jade, you're being ridiculous, there was nothing else. It's not like there's a grocery store around the corner!" Like I said, incredible.

"So! who wants a banana?"

"Me, me!" Cat yelled, and grabbed one immediately.

Jade

Beck and André made some fruitless efforts to start the fire.

"I told you it wouldn't work," I said when they both sat down in the sand, exhausted from rubbing sticks against each other without any success.

"Please, Jade, not now," Beck said with his eyes closed. I smiled triumphantly. It usually took quite something to piss him off. My smile immediately faded when Cat suggested to play hide-and-seek.

Robbie

We played so many games that day I can't even remember all of them. Cat made most of them up, so they usually didn't make much sense. At lunchtime André and I went into the forest to look for some more bananas, or something else edible. We found some berries that looked delicious, but since we didn't know if they were poisonous we only took bananas. We obviously didn't want anyone to accidentally die here.

I knew we wouldn't be able to survive on a diet of coconut milk and bananas. We'd need some kind of meat, or fish. For fish we needed a river. So when we were done eating, I asked who wanted to go with me to search for one.

Tori and Beck wanted to come, resulting in a very angry Jade. But since she couldn't come with us due to her foot (which we thought wasn't broken but still hurt), so Beck just told her to calm down. She did make him promise to be back in less than two hours. That meant we'd better hurry.

Tori

I was glad to be away from Cat and Jade for a while. I liked Cat, I really did, but I was really tired and she was starting to get on my nerves. And it's obvious why I wanted to get away from Jade. I walked behind the two boys, trying to remember everything I saw. I wouldn't want to get lost in here, who know how big this forest was. I also listened carefully. That turned out to be helpful, since I was the one who heard the small stream first.

It was a beautiful place. It was an open field, surrounded by high trees. The grass was covered with flowers. The river ran straight through the middle of it. Although it wasn't really a river, it was too small for that, but the water was impossibly clear. You could easily see the bottom.

"Seems like we found our river," I remarked.

"Yeah, wow!" Robbie was clearly impressed too.

"If we follow it we might find it's offspring,' Beck suggested, but Robbie shook his head.

"That would take too long. I'd rather not get killed by Jade when we return." Beck nodded understandingly.

"Yes, that's probably not a good idea." I thought of another problem.

"How do we get the water back to the beach?" I knew I had a bottle in my bag, but I hadn't taken it with me. Lucky for us Robbie did have one.

"I thought it would be useful," he proudly said. Before returning to the camp we all drunk as much as we could. It was so much better than coconut milk!

"Well, let's go,' Beck said when we were done. I nodded lazily. I'd actually rather stay. This place was just too perfect! But I knew we had to go back, if not only to keep Jade from killing us all.

Cat

I totally loved the island! It was warm, there was a whole ocean next to us, as much coconuts as we wanted... My head did still hurt. There was a big bump on it. That didn't keep me from having fun, though! We played games for hours and hours and I loved it. And I liked the bananas too. But when we had bananas in the morning, and for lunch, and for dinner, it was a little much. "Can we have strawberries tomorrow?" I was also happy to have some water. I discovered that when you eat or drink a lot of the same thing, it gets less and less tasty.

**Chapter endings are difficult... I suck at those. Hope you don't mind too much :) Oh, and I'm gonna try to put some more action into the next chapters. This just had to be written, I guess... Sorry if it's a bit boring.**

**Xxx Red**


	7. Mountains and trouble

**This chapter was really really difficult to write. I did lots of research. Who knew you'd actually learn stuff when writing? Okay, anyway, hope this one's better than the last one! :)**

Beck  
"So who wants to explore the island?" It was our third day, and we were all more than eager to have something to do. You'll be surprised how many games you can play in one day. We decided André, Robbie and I would try to walk around the island over the beach, and the girls would stay here, since Jade still couldn't walk properly and Cat's head still hurt.

"We'll be back as soon as possible," André said as we walked away.

"Yeah, don't hurry," Jade answered.

"Oh, will you guys bring coconuts?" Cat asked.

"Cat, there's coconuts all around you," Robbie said.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?" Robbie quickly apologized and promised we'd take some coconuts with us. Then we left.

André  
We walked in silence for about an hour. Everything worth saying had already been said somewhere in the last two days. So we all just enjoyed the walk and the quiet.

Robbie  
We got stuck at the place a river ended into the sea. We thought it was the same river we got our water from, but we couldn't be sure.

"What do you think? Cross it or follow it?" Beck asked.

"Well, since we were trying to walk all around, I suppose we should cross it." I agreed with André, so we carefully stepped into the water.

"You know, if there's a river here, shouldn't there be mountains?" We all looked around, but we didn't see any major rise in the landscape.

"Maybe it's to far away," I suggested.

"Maybe." That would of course mean this island was way bigger than we'd expected, or hoped at least.

Beck  
We continued walking at the other side of the river. After a while I noticed we were increasing in altitude.

"Hey guys, I think we found our mountain. Or the beginning of it." And indeed, after two more hours we weren't walking at the warm sand of the beach anymore. Instead the ground was hard and rocky, and we had to be careful not to trip.  
We reached what seemed to be the highest point, if we wanted to keep following the shoreline. It was a beautiful place, really. I'd have loved to take Jade there. Although she wasn't quite the romance lover. Anyways, it was a great place to take a break.

André  
The view from this point was amazing.

As soon as we get home I'm gonna write a song about this, I promised myself. We took a small break at the edge of the cliff, looking out over the ocean. As far as we could see there was nothing but water, sparkling in the sun. Beautiful. It did make us fully realize how far from home we were. And beneath us we saw the water hit the rocks with enormous power.

"You don't wanna fall in here!" I stated, and Beck and Robbie agreed.

Robbie  
The place creeped me out. I was terribly afraid of heights, and I wanted nothing more than to run downhills to a lower spot. But when both Beck and André wanted to take a break at the highest point, where you could easily fall over the edge into the water, I didn't protest. I didn't want to look like a coward.

When we were ready to go again, we had to choose between a path leading land inwards and up the mountain, or one following the shoreline and going down. I knew what I wanted. Beck and André also wanted to keep walking along the ocean border, so down we went.

Beck  
The path got smaller and smaller, until at some point you could hardly call it a path anymore. It was just a rocky, pretty steep hillside, and we had to continue backwards on legs and feet, keeping our balance by holding on to rocks sticking out of the mountain, in order not to fall.

"Maybe we should go back," André suggested. Robbie really didn't seem to want to make the climb either. But I wasn't done yet.

"How about I go and see if it gets easier further down ?" I suggested, and continued climbing. I found out it didn't get easier. In fact, it only got worse. At some point I had to climb straight down a cliff! I made the mistake of looking down, and I saw the sand of a beach beneath me. About fifty meters away. I decided not to risk my life any further and started to climb back up.

André

I followed Beck until the place where I had to climb almost straight down. I stopped at a small ridge.

"Hey man, it's not getting any better, let's go back!" I yelled at Beck, who was already trying to climb back up.

"Yeah, I'm- Wow!"

"What?" He looked up at me with wide open eyes. Then I looked behind me and froze.

The cat was gigantic. It's fur was orange-brown with black spots, and its eyes seemed to glow. It stared at me menacingly, only a few meters away.

"Oww..." The cat moved, sat down, as if to say:"you just try and run, I'll catch you anyway!" Or maybe that's just what I made out of it.

"Scare it away!" Beck yelled, but I was too scared myself to move. I knew better than to provoke a wild animal. All I could do was stare at the cat, and it stared back, mocking me for not being fast enough to run. I heard Beck climb up.

"Make fire or something!" he yelled.

"How 'm I supposed to do that?!" I yelled back in panic.

"You're standing on flint! Strike it with something metal!" I looked down. And indeed, I saw lots and lots of small pieces of the rock.

"I don't have any metal!" I said, but picked up a piece of flint anyway. The cat followed my every movement with those creepy eyes of his. Beck reached me.

"Try the buckle of your belt!" That guy's a genius! I clumsily hit the buckle with the flint.

"It's not working!" I yelled after a few tries. The cat still hadn't moved, but it seemed interested in what I was doing. Weird creature.

"Here, let me try," Beck said, and took the stuff out of my hands. He actually managed to create some sparks.

"Have you got any wood?"

"No!" I looked around. "Wait, yeah." There was only little vegetation, but there was a small bush close enough for me to reach it. I pulled as hard as I could. The cat growled dangerously.

"I... got it..." The plant got loose.

"Quickly! Hold it by the sparks!" Only a few seconds later we'd managed to set the dry branches of the bush on fire.

Beck

I held the burning plant in front of me, and walked towards the cat.

"Kssssht!" The cat growled, but slowly backed away.

"Yeah, you better run!" André yelled, suddenly not afraid anymore. The cat growled one last time, and then gave up and ran away. We watched as it disappeared between the rocks.

"O, yeah!" André high-fived me.

"Hey, we should get back to Robbie. Bet he's worried by now."

"Man, that guy is always worried." We walked back to the place we'd left our friend.

"Where is he?" André asked puzzled when he wasn't there. I shrugged.

"Don't know, maybe he went back to the others." Neither one of us believed that.

**Oooooh I tried a cliffhanger... Do you hate me now? ;) Keep reviewing, ideas are totally welcome. Thanks to the people who already gave me some, I'll try to use them in the next chapter. Or maybe the one after that, because I might post a chapter about Trina and the parents.**

**Xxx Red**


	8. What happened?

Tori  
"They should have been back by now." Jade was looking in the direction the boys had left.

"Oh Jade, don't worry so much! I'm sure they'll be back soon!" I was kind of worried myself too, though. They HAD been gone for over six hours.

"Besides, we don't know how big this island is. It could be miles!" She didn't stop.

"It's not like we can catch up with them." She turned around, looking like she was going to say something. She didn't.

"Hey you guys, look what I got!" Cat yelled for the ten millionth time.

"Cat, I don't wanna see another shell," I complained.

"Nonono look!" She pushed something into my face.

"It's a doll!" And indeed, it was a tiny puppet, seemingly made of grass. It wore clothes made of leaves, and a flower as a hat. I thought it was pretty cute.

"Hey, where did you get that?" Jade said while walking back to us. Cat giggled.

"I made it."

"How?" We didn't have any tools, except for a pocket knife, and Jade's trusty old scissors. Which I was very sure were still in her boot.

"Oh, I just... made it." Cat smiled at us, and I glanced at Jade meaningfully.

"That's... really cool! You think you could... make other stuff too?" That could be really useful. Cat nodded happily.

"Sure! Like what?" Yeah, good question. What did we need? Except for a plane home, that is.

"How about... something to catch fish with?" We'd been thinking of a way to do that. Who knows, maybe the little redhead would actually come up with something. She stared at me blankly for a moment.

"Kay kay," she finally said, and ran off.

"Wow. That was... unexpected," I said to Jade. She nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I wonder where she learned that."

André

"Robbie!" I yelled for what seemed the ten billionth time.

"Where are you?!" We'd been searching for over an hour, and all we'd found was a piece of rope and an empty coconut shell. We were tired, and warm, and sweaty, and I'd have given a whole lot for a little water.

"Maybe we should go back to the girls, see if Robbie's there," Beck suggested. That would mean we might not find Robbie.

"What if that cat got him? We can't just leave him!" I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to him. After all, he wanted to go back, but Beck and I didn't listen. So we kept looking, and yelling.

Robbie

I had no idea where I was. I'd wildly ran off when I saw the wild cat approach. And now I was completely lost.

I'd left the mountains, and now I was somewhere in the forest. I looked behind me. The cheetah hadn't followed me. Had it gone after Beck and André instead? I turned around and walked back the way I came. Or the way I thought I came. Because the pebble beach I saw when I got out of the forest didn't look familiar at all.

"Oh, man!" I said out loud. Right next to me was a high cliff, way to high to climb, even if I wouldn't have been afraid of heights. I had no idea what to do.

"Okay Robbie, think! What would Rex do?" Whenever I was in a difficult situation Rex would make a mean comment that told me what to do. But Rex wasn't here right now, so I'd just have to imagine him.

"_Come on, Rob, ya baby, don't just sit here and whine. Your friends might be in danger!" _

"Right!" I couldn't climb the cliff, but I could walk around it! It could be a long walk, though. I plucked a coconut on the way. All this running around had made me thirsty.

Beck

The sun was starting to go down. André and I were sitting on a big rock, at the place where we'd last seen Robbie, both of us eating a banana. We hadn't found anything, at least no Robbie or wild animals other than a few birds and insects. We were both starting to give up.

"We should go back," I said, without much energy.

"Yeah." Neither one of us moved. I thought about the curly haired boy, somewhere alone in those mountains, or in the forest maybe. We'd searched for hours, but the island appeared to be gigantic. The chance we found him was less than one percent.

"Hey, we could leave him a message!" I started to look for loose rocks.

"How?" André asked, looking at me weirdly.

"Make an arrow or something, come and help me." When we had enough rocks we put them on the ground in an arrow shape.

"You think he'll notice?" André asked. I shrugged.

"Stating he comes back here before dark, I think it's fifty-fifty." I anxiously looked at my watch.

"It's already 7 o'clock, we've got to hurry. We have a pretty long walk to go."

André

When we arrived it was dark, and the girls were waiting for us.

"Where have you been!" Jade yelled. She was leaning on some kind of stick.

"I'm sorry." Beck hugged her.

"Hey, where's Robbie?" Tori looked around, searching. I cleared my throat.

"We don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Tori asked anxiously.

"Did he hide? Do we have to seek him?" Cat looked into the forest suspiciously.

"No, little red. We don't know, as in we lost him." All the girls looked shocked.

"How?" Tori asked with wide open eyes. I told them what happened as far as we knew.

"You ran into a cheetah?"

"Ehm... if that's what it was." Suddenly we heard something creak in the forest.

"What was that?" Tori said, sounding very scared. We all took a step backwards, very aware of the fact that there was a large Atlantic Ocean behind us. A figure appeared in the dark between the trees.

"It's the cheetah!" Cat squeaked.

Tori

Cat was surprisingly good at making stuff. In a few hours she made Jade some very useful and nicely decorated crutches, a net to catch fish with made of some kind of grass, a few coconut shell pans, and she still had time left to make herself some more dolls. Incredible! Jade and I watched her make one thing after the other, attempting not to worry about the boys. But they'd been gone WAY to long.

It was about eleven when they finally returned. We walked towards them, both angry and relieved. Then I noticed someone was missing.

"Hey, where's Robbie?" Both boys looked at me uncomfortably. André told us what had happened.

"You ran into a cheetah?" The island suddenly sounded way less safe.

The noise startled all of us. We were already nervous because of André's story, and we expected the worst.

"It's the cheetah!" Cat squeaked in panic.

"What? Where!" a familiar voice screeched. Our lost friend came running towards us.

Cat

"Oh my god, Robbie, we were so worried!" I forgot all about the cheetah when I saw my friend, and I ran up to him.

"Hey, kitty cat." Robbie tried to hug me, but I pulled away. It was weird to hug Robbie, although I wasn't sure why. I thought Robbie was nice, but Jade had told me many times to stay away from him. I was still glad he was back.

"I'm so sorry you guys, I saw that cheetah and I freaked! I got lost in the forest." He looked at Beck and André, who both looked just as relieved as me.

"That's okay, I'm glad you're back," André said. And then I was disappointed because they didn't bring coconuts as they promised and Robbie went to get me one anyway.


	9. Back home

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday, I had a party :) **

**I don't know why I wrote this, guess I just wanted some background for the characters. It's not very long.**

**And yes, there's definately going to be more bade. I'm probably gonna write some random scenes, lots of bade and friendship and stuff. Any ideas anyone?**

Trina

We got the call at 8 o'clock. My mom picked up the phone.

"Holly Vega," she said. I don't usually listen to other people's phone calls (like I care about what they do), but there seemed to be something really wrong. I saw my mom's expression change from shocked to terrified.

"What?" I asked, getting closer in an attempt to hear the other person speak. My mom shook her head.

"I- I understand. Yes, thank you. Bye." She put the phone down, still looking like she'd just seen a ghost. She slowly sat down on the couch.

"What's wrong?" I asked again. She looked at me, her expression so sad I felt a little bad myself.

"Trina, honey," she started. I saw tears in her eyes. Something had to be really wrong.

"Tori's plane crashed, they don't know where they are." My heart stopped.

"Tori's... gone?" No way. Not my little, very annoying sister! Mom nodded, crying.

"Does dad know?" She nodded again.

"Somebody called him too." I sat down next to her, not knowing what to do or say.

* * *

We all gathered at the police station where my dad worked. Cat's parents were there, a small woman with long brown hair who looked a lot like her daughter and a tired-looking bald man, with her crazy brother who was for some reason wearing a pink bra over his clothes.

And Robbie's parents, both with black hair, although his dad's was curly like his own and his mother's was long and straight. Both were awefully quiet.

And then André's grandmother, who kept staring at me like I was some scary monster. Well, I guess she stared at everyone like that.

Beck's parents were the calmest (guess we know where he got that from), they were trying to support Cat's mother, who was crying and whispering Cat's name.

Jade's parents were painfully absent.

My dad, being a police officer, was the one who brought us the little news there was.

"They haven't found the plane yet. They did find out what was wrong with it." He explained something about a problem with the motor and an unlicensed pilot, but I wasn't really listening anymore.

I looked at all the people there. Funny how half of Tori's friends had such a weird family. I wouldn't normally care. But things were different now that Tori was gone.

People talked to me more, said they were sorry, asked if there was news. They really liked Tori. Cared about her. And although she was terribly annoying and not even half as talented as me, I did really miss her, and I just felt like her friends deserved to be missed as well. No matter how weird they were.

* * *

We all stayed at the police station for some time, talking and waiting. After about half an hour a woman came running in.

"I came as soon as I heard, is there any news?" She was panting, like she'd just been running for miles, and her black hair was bound into a sloppy ponytail.

"I'm sorry, no," my dad said. He looked at her a little weird, like he didn't know who she was.

"And... who are you?" I asked. I'd never seen her before. She turned to me.

"I'm sorry, we've never met, I'm Jane." She didn't shake my hand. Okay, I still didn't know who she was. We all stared at her, except for Cat's parents, who apparently did know who she was. Jane looked around.

"Where's Richard?" Cat's mother stopped crying, and looked at Jane with a disgusted expression.

"He texted, said he was away on business." Jane's eyes grew wide.

"Too important to worry about his daughter?" So she was here for Jade, then?

"My god, I knew that guy was messed up, but..." Jane looked at the ground incredulously.

"Are you Jade's mom?" I asked curiously. She hardly seemed like the type. She smiled and shook her head.

"I'm her aunt, her mom's sister." So then where was her mom? Suddenly a phone rang.

"Oh, I'm really sorry everyone, work calls." My dad waved and left. One by one the others started to go too. My mom and I were the last to leave, together with Jane. I hoped, more than I'd ever hoped anything, Tori and her friends were okay.

**I put a new character in here, as a family member for Jade other than her parents, because I figured they wouldn't care all that much about her. Yeah, that's mean, but it fits in my opinion. Anyway, hope you don't mind. I don't think she'll play a really big part, unless any of you want me to do more backstory on the characters. Please tell me if you do! **

**As for this chapter, I thought I'd just do a little bit about Trina. Although I don't really like her. Maybe an event like this could change her in a good way, I thought. Anyway, sorry if you didn't like it... :/**

**Next chapter should be ready soon!**

**Xxx Red**


	10. Jade's bedtime story

**This was... really random. Just some Cat/Jade friendship. Because I think it's really fun when they are friends, because they are so different :). I got the idea from "the Slap" where Cat forces Jade to help her tell a bedtime story.**

**It's not essential to the story, just a cute scene (I think) so feel free to skip it. Or at least the ****_italic_**** part, which is everything that's part of Jade's story. Just see this as an extra!**

Cat**  
**It was night and very dark. I looked up at the trees. We were sleeping in the forest tonight, because we were afraid of the wild animals that might find us on the beach now that we knew there was a cheetah and we didn't have fire yet.

I saw a bird in one of the trees, but it flew away. The silence scared me. At my house it was never quiet, because my brother always made noises. He's really weird. I missed him, though. And my parents, and Sikowitz, and Lane. But not Rex, because he's always mean to everyone.

A noise made me squeak. Was the cheetah here?

"Cat? 's that you?" someone said.

"I'm Cat!" I answered.

"Shut up!" I thought it must be Jade.

"I can't sleep," I said. She sighed.

"Just be quiet, or I can't sleep either." I didn't want her to go to sleep; I wanted her to come and sit next to me and tell me a story, even though Jade doesn't like telling stories and her stories are usually creepy and mean.

"Please tell me a story?" I pleaded. Jade groaned.

"No, I'm tired. Go to sleep."

"But I ca-ant! I want a story!" I started to sob.

"No, Cat, be quiet! You'll wake the others!" Jade hissed, but I was too sad and scared to listen.

"Pleeeeeeeeeasey?" I put as much sadness in my voice as I could, knowing she'd give in. I heard her sigh.

"Fine! What do you wanna hear?" I enthusiastically clapped my hands.

"Yay! Ehm... can you tell me about Cinderella?" It was my favorite fairytale and I always asked Jade to tell it to me because she's a really good storyteller. If she's not being mean.

"Ow, Cat, I've told you that story like a thousand times. Can't I tell you something else?" she said while sitting down next to me. I wildly shook my head.

"Cat, I can't see you."

"Oh. No, you have to tell me Cinderella!"

"Fine! Whatever!" she moaned, and started to tell the story.****

Jade**  
**_"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Cat."_****

"Hey, that's just like me! But she was called..."

"I know how she was called, just listen!"

"Kay kay."****

_"She was very happy because she lived with her dad and mom, who were very important people in the kingdom. But then, one day, her mom got very ill, and she died."_****

Cat gasped.

"Cat, you've heard this like a thousand times!"

"I know! It's just so sad!" I sighed and continued.****

_"Cat and her daddy lived together for some time, but her daddy had to go on business very often."_****

"Oh, just like your dad!" I ignored that comment.****

_"So, Cat was home alone a lot. Her daddy thought this wasn't a very good idea, so he looked for a new mommy for Cat. He found one that had two daughters, Tori and Trina, who were both about Cat's age. They married, and things went well until the daddy had to go away on business again. Cat staid with the step-mom -and sisters, but they weren't nice to her at all. Actually, they were really mean, and told her what to do and called her Cinderella."_****

"Why is it mean if they call her Cinderella?"

"I don't know, it just... is. Now be quiet, or I'll stop."

"Kay ka..."

"Thank you."****

_"Cat was really upset, because she had to wear ugly dresses and do a lot of work. Then, one day, a letter arrived._**_  
_**_It was from the_ _king, and it said that every young woman in the kingdom was invited to come to the dance party at the palace, and the best girl would marry his son, prince Robbie."_

Cat giggled.

"What?"

"Prince Robbie, that's just like our Robbie!"

"Cat, do you want me to tell you the story or not?" She probably nodded, but I couldn't see her in the dark.

_"Cat wanted to go to the party, but she didn't have a dress, or nice shoes, or a car, and her step-mother said she could only come if she'd finished all her work. So Cat had to stay at home while her step-sisters went to the party, because she could never finish all the work in time. _

_But when they were all gone and Cat was crying in her room, a light appeared, and in the light a girl. _

_'Stop whining,' the girl said. 'You want to go to that party, don't you?' Cat was startled and looked up, and nodded. _

_'Then why are you still here?' _

_'I don't have a dress or shoes or a car,' Cat answered. The fairy girl rolled her eyes. _

_'Well, I guess I should get you that.' She pulled out her magic wand and pointed it at Cat's ugly dress. Suddenly the dress changed, and it became the most beautiful dress Cat had ever seen. Then the fairy pointed at her shoes, and hey turned into very pretty, sparkly heels made of glass. _

_'Thank you so much!' Cat yelled, and she tried to hug the fairy. But the fairy didn't like to be hugged, and she pushed Cat away. _

_'Hey, I'm not done yet, you need a way to get there.' She looked out of the window. _

_'Well, I guess that will do,' she said, and pointed her wand at a big pumpkin growing in the garden. It turned into a very awesome car, and a mouse that had just been running by turned into the driver._

_'Well, what are you waiting for,' the fairy said. _

_'Oh, by the way, be back at twelve. And a little something to make sure you won't be recognized by those bitches you have to call sisters and mom.' A touch of the wand turned Cat's hair a bright red color. _

_'That'll do. Bye!' The fairy disappeared._

_Cat went to the party with her new dress, shoes, hair and car. Nobody recognized her, but everybody looked at her because she was really pretty and she had beautiful clothes. The prince saw her too, and he immediately fell in love with her. He asked her to dance with him, making all the other girls (including Cat's step-sisters) very jealous. The prince didn't care, though, all he saw was Cat. _

_They danced the whole evening, but then they were disturbed by the clock, which told them it was twelve o'clock. _

_'Oh no! I have to go!' Cat said, and giggled because that rhymed. _

_'Why?' the prince asked. 'I thought we were having fun together?' Cat smiled sweetly. _

_'We were, but the fairy told me to be home in time.' She quickly kissed the prince, leaving him startled, and ran off. She lost her shoe on the way, but she didn't have time to get it. Before she even reached the car, everything turned back to the way it was: the car became a pumpkin, the driver a mouse and her clothes turned all ugly again. Except for her shoes, they stayed how they were. _

_Cat had to walk all the way home, barefoot. The prince found her other shoe, the one she'd lost, and he took it with him._

_The next day the prince rode through the land, trying to find someone the shoe fitted on. He'd already tried thousands of girls when he arrived at Cat's home. Of course the shoe didn't fit one one of the step-sisters, and the prince just wanted to leave when Cat came running down the stairs. _

_'Wait! Wait! I wanna try too!' she yelled. Her step-sisters laughed. _

_'You can't try, you weren't even at the party,' they said. But the prince felt bad for the girl, so he let her try anyway. And guess what? It fitted exactly._

_Prince Robby took Cat back to his palace, where they would get married. Everybody was invited: her dad, the fairy and her boyfriend Beck, the mouse that had been the car driver who was called André, and everybody else in the kingdom. Except for the mean step-sisters and step-mother, because nobody liked them. And they lived happily ever after. The end."_

Someone clapped, but it wasn't Cat. It was to far away to be her.

"Yay, I liked it!" Cat whispered groggily. I smiled.

"Can you sleep now?"

"Uhuh." She put her head in my lap and fell asleep.

I quickly looked in the direction I'd heard the clapping from. I was pretty sure it'd been Vega.

"I liked your story," she softly said. Yeah, Vega. I raised an eyebrow.

"You were the mean step-sister."

"I liked that Cat and Robbie got together. And that you were the fairy. I thought it was cute." I growled dangerously.

"Wrong word, Vega." She chuckled.

"Well, it was!" I decided to ignore her.

**Okay, next chapter will be better. I think. Ah, you'll see :)**

**Xxx Red**


	11. Who's there?

**Yay, little bit more action. This was fun to write. Although I think I suck at action scenes. PLEASE tell me how I can improve my story and/or writing! I love your reviews sooooo much! **

**I especially want to thank **Quirkista **for reviewing on EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER until now. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Sometimes when I'm unhappy I read your reviews and I'm all like: "HAHA I don't care what everybody sais someone still likes my story!" **

**And of course thanks to all other people who took the time to leave me a comment. I tried to use the ideas you gave me. **

Jade

After a week it became painfully clear to us we wouldn't be saved just any minute. Nobody said it, it was just obvious. And with that realization came the need to think of the future.

"We have to search for some kind of shelter," Beck said, and we all agreed. We'd been sleeping in our sleeping bags on the forest floor, which wasn't all that comfortable.

"Yeah, maybe we can build some kind of shed," Tori suggested. I knew we had to find something. But how were we supposed to do that?

"I think that'll be kinda difficult without rope, nails or anything else to connect stuff with each other," André spoke my thoughts. I nodded thoughtfully.

"Maybe if we make some kind of tree house?" I suggested. "Use a tree for support."

The idea of sleeping in a tree was completely repulsing, but what options did we have?

"Yeah, that could work," Robbie said. We decided to try it.

"What if we split up in pairs? We can't make something big enough for all of us," I said.

"Yay, do a competition!" Cat yelled.

"Me and Cat'll share one," Tori immediately decided. I rolled my eyes.

"No, really, Vega. I thought you'd want to share one with Robbie." She gave me a stupid look.

"Right. So you and Beck share one, then?" I nodded, holding back another sarcastic remark.

"Let's first search for a good place," Beck said. "It has to be near the beach, the river and food." We decided to first go to the river and search from there.

Cat

We walked for a really long time. I saw a lot of good places to build a tree house, but apparently there was something wrong with all of them because we didn't stop. Luckily there were a lot of things to see, like flowers and birds and butterflies. We even found some mango trees! I liked that because we'd eaten a lot of bananas the last few days.

I almost crashed into Tori when the others suddenly stopped.

"Have we found a place?" I asked when nobody attempted to move. André shook his head.

"Something much better than that." I walked past my friends to see what they were looking at.

"Aw, that's so cute!" I yelled.

Tori

It was true, the small cottages on the other side of the field were impossibly cute. They were quite simple, made of wood, seemingly bound together with some kind of rope, and leaves and moss on the roofs. They had a certain charm, though. There was something civilized about them, which we'd missed the last few days. But they were also totally misplaced.

"Who put this here?" I asked dully. André, who was standing next to me, shook his head.

"I don't know."

We were all staring at the cottages so intensely it took a while to notice Cat was walking towards them.

"Cat, wait!" I yelled. She turned around, already halfway there.

"Whatty?"

"We don't know if somebody lives here, get- WOW!"

Jade

A man appeared in the doorway of the biggest cottage. If you could call him a man. His hair was long, white and dirty, and so was his beard. He had a crazy look in his gigantic, brown eyes, and he looked really old. He walked towards Cat. I noticed he leaned more on his left foot, like he was a cripple. He made a growling noise, and held out his hand towards Cat. She backed away and squeaked.

"Hey, dude, stay away from her!" I yelled. The guy turned his head towards me. I stared into his raging eyes, trying not to blink. Never look away if you're trying to intimidate someone. The man made a sound that may once have been laughing. Now it sounded more like he was going to puke. He took another step towards Cat. I saw something blink in his hand.

"He has a knife," I gasped. I sprinted towards them, forgetting my crutches for a moment. I almost fell when I put too much weight on my injured foot, but I kept running.

"Jade, stop, this guy's dangerous!" Beck yelled, but I ignored him. I was NOT letting this guy hurt Cat.

Beck

I watched in terror as Jade ran towards the man, who by now was holding his knife against Cat's throat.

"Jade, stop, this guy's dangerous!" I yelled, but I knew she wouldn't listen. She kept going, even when she almost tripped. I ran after her, but immediately came to a stop when the man growled at us dangerously.

"Easy, easy," I said soothingly, and held my hands up in the air. He grinned, showing me some yellow teeth. He slowly moved his hand from Cat's throat towards Jade, his other hand wrapped around Cat's waist.

"Let go of her!" Jade screamed. She stopped in front of him, just out of his reach, ready to act.

"Don't do something stupid, girl." It was the first understandable thing he'd said.

"Don't hurt my friend, dude!" I slowly walked up to them, my hands still up, to stop Jade from, indeed, doing something stupid. I mean, this guy had a knife!

"What do you want?" Jade asked. What was she doing? The man stared at her, still a crazy grin on his face. Like he hadn't seen a human in years. I realized he probably hadn't. Who was he? He did a step forward, towards Jade, with Cat in his grasp. His knife was still pointing towards my girlfriend.

"You can't leave." The sound of his voice hurt my ears. You could hardly even call it human.

"You can't leave." Another step towards her. I saw Cat had started to cry; she looked terrified. Suddenly someone screamed behind me, and I spun around. O. My. God.

André

We thought the cheetah we'd encountered on the mountain was big. The creature that had appeared behind us was... well, gigantic. It walked towards us, but didn't attempt to attack. Yet. I looked at Tori and Robbie, who both stared at the monster with wide-open eyes and mouth. Something I would have laughed about, but not in this situation.

I turned around to look at the creep who was still holding Cat. Jade, slowly backing away from him, apparently hadn't noticed the new threat yet. Beck had, alarmed by Tori and Robbie's screaming.

The cat circled around us, and I could swear it smiled at the sight of our fear. I wasn't sure what exactly it was, it seemed too big for a cheetah. Not that it really mattered what ate us. God, how did we suddenly get so much bad luck?

Or maybe it wasn't all coincidence. Because the cat's actions seemed... unnatural. Just circling around us, not getting closer, as if to scare us. Or maybe stop us from intervening! I looked from the cat to the man and back. Wait, could he maybe... Was that possible? I saw our two captors make eye contact. Apparently it was.

Jade

I had no plan, other than doing anything to make this creep let go of Cat. I ignored Beck, who followed me, and only stopped in front of the man. He was pointing his knife at me.

"Don't do something stupid, girl." Wow, he could actually talk!

"Don't hurt my friend, dude." Never show fear if you want to survive among bigger and stronger people. This guy was definitely bigger. But stronger? He actually looked really skinny and starved. On the other side, he did appear to live in the jungle on his own. I decided to try and buy some time.

"What do you want?" He grinned at me, and got closer, dragging Cat with him.

"You can't leave," he said. I instinctively backed away.

"You can't leave," he repeated. So this guy was lonely? Well, he was definitely crazy, too. And I'm not a fan of crazy people who are threatening me or my friends with knifes. So no way I was gonna give him what he wanted.

Someone screamed, but I needed myself to focus on a plan to save Cat. I remembered his probably injured right foot.

He got distracted by something behind me, and I took my chance. I kicked his knee as hard as I could, at the same time reaching for the arm he had around Cat. He growled and fell, not being able to stand on his bad foot. Too bad my own foot was injured as well. Damn, that hurt! I pulled Cat, who had fallen on the ground with him, out of his arms and away from him.

"You okay?" She nodded quietly. I wanted to run towards my friends, but Beck grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"No wait, look!" Only then I saw the gigantic cat. Without even thinking I reached for my scissors and flung them at the animal as hard as I could. And I throw with scissors a lot, so I could throw pretty hard.

I had to do something about my aim, though. The sharp metal didn't even touch the cat, it flew right over and got stuck in a tree. It still worked: I scared the hell out of the animal, and it ran off. Robbie, André and Vega came running towards us.

Beck

Incredible! She just chased an enormous wild animal away with a single pair of scissors! I stared at the still shaking piece of metal in the tree.

"O my god, I thought we were dead!" Tori yelled, distracting me. I turned around to my girlfriend. She was holding Cat in a hug, the little redhead was sobbing and shaking. She must have been terrified!

"Are you okay, little red?" André, Tori and Robbie gathered around us. Cat nodded.

"Did he hurt you?" I looked at her for any sign of injury, but I didn't see anything.

"No, I think-"

"Hey, is Jade all right?" Tori interrupted. I looked at my girlfriend. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be leaning on Cat rather than support her.

"God, man, she's bleeding!" André said. I became awfully aware of the cut on her arm, blood oozing out.

"Jade?" She shook her head.

"Dizzy... Wow." She collapsed, and I quickly supported her, sitting down on the ground with her in my arms. André took Cat, who looked shocked and confused, over from her.

"Somebody find something like a bandage!" I ordered. Robbie and Tori ran towards the cottages, and I crossed my fingers. What if there was someone else?

They soon returned with not only a bandage but a whole first aid kit.

"Where did you find that?" Tori vaguely gestured towards one of the cottages, but I wasn't even paying attention to her anymore. I had opened the first aid kit and was throwing stuff out, attempting to find anything that could stop the bleeding. André held something up that I'd thrown on the ground.

"Here." I hadn't even noticed the roll of bandage. I quickly but carefully wrapped the white material around her arm. The bleeding seemed to stop, and I sighed in relief.

"Is it bad?" Cat innocently asked.

"I hardly consider getting cut with a knife a good thing, Cat," Jade answered with a half smile. It sounded a little weak, but at least she was awake.

"Are you okay?" I asked while she sat up.

"Fine." She looked at the bandage. "I didn't even notice he cut me." She looked at Cat.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" Cat shook her head.

"Thanks for saving me. He had really bad breath."

"Yeah, girl, that was pretty awesome," André said, and Tori nodded in agreement. Jade just shrugged.

"Hey, where'd the guy go?" We all looked around, and realized he was gone.

**Yeah, I know this isn't very likely to happen. But this is a story, so it happened anyway. Please don't hit me! And I liked this chapter. So to quote Tori: "_Ah! Uh, uh, uh! I believe in my own choices, and I don't need approval from others._"(the Bird Scene) Not true by the way. I really want you guys to like me. So please like me!**

**Seriously, even if you just say something like: "Nice story" or "Keep going" or whatever, I'll totally love you. Now who says you can't buy love? But Anyway, please just review, and if you want me to respond to you personally please tell me.**

**Next chapter might take a while, I haven't even started yet. Sorry :(**

**I'M ALSO STILL IN DESPERATE NEED FOR MORE IDEAS!**

**Xxx Red**


	12. Interesting findings

**OMG I GOT 10 REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER! THANK YOU ALL!**

André

We searched the cottages from top to bottom for... well, anything. There were four of them, but one looked like it was gonna collapse soon.

We split up in pairs. Robbie and I searched the one on the right, Beck and Jade took the bigger one in the middle, and Cat and Tori the one on the left. We skipped the other one, because we didn't want to get the roof on our heads. Plus, it looked empty.

In all three cottages there were two beds (well, places to sleep made of grass and moss) and a simple wooden chest filled with stuff.

In our cottage we found a small storage of coconuts (pretty useless if you could get fresh ones so easily), a dead rat and a huge pile of very interesting notebooks.

"I think these are journals," Robbie said while browsing through one of them. I picked one up too and opened it.

"_Day 808, Charles Fisher"_

_After such a long time it hardly seems of any use to write down what day it is. I have no idea what day of the week it is, or even what month or year. It's really just to keep things in order now. _

_James killed a cheetah today. Hit it in the head with a rock. I should be used to death by now. But we found out this one has a whelp. Anne insisted we keep it and feed it and all. I want to say yes, but I don't want to get us all into trouble. It is a predator, after all."_

"Yeah, you're right." I browsed through the book. It was all written by the same person, this Charles Fisher. Was he the man we'd seen?

"Let's show this to the others."

Jade

The biggest cottage was the only one with traces of another human. There were footsteps in the dust everywhere, and it was a mess that reminded my all too much of my own room back home. We found a huge pile of bananas, coconuts, mango's and other food in one corner.

"This guy did not want to starve to death," Beck remarked. I nodded.

"Hey, look at those!" There were two chests here, probably because there was more space. In one of them I found a pile of thin, green notebooks. I picked one up and opened it.

"This is about plants." Quickly browsing through, I saw information about seemingly every plant on this island.

"Amazing, this person made a lot of work out of this."

"He or she probably didn't have anything better to do." Beck held up a small diary.

"The first entry is 1970." I stared at the small, blue-and-green striped book.

"That's more than forty years ago."

"Yeah, and that's when this person got stuck here, according to this thing." Forty years. We could still be stuck here in forty years!

Tori

Our cottage was dirty, dusty and looked like nobody had set foot in it for a long time.

"I wonder who lived here," Cat said, while reaching for something in the big chest in the corner. Suddenly she pulled her hand back.

"Something moved!" she screamed. We both backed away from the chest. Maybe it was a spider, or a gigantic bug, or...

"What's wrong?" Jade and Beck ran into our cottage.

"Cat saw something move in there," I answered, gesturing towards the crate. Beck wanted to walk towards it, but Cat grabbed his arm.

"No don't do it! What if it gets you?" Beck just gave her a reassuring smile and looked into the chest.

"I don't see anything. Or wait, is that..." He reached for something, and both Cat and I held our breath. Beck turned around with something in his hand. He showed it to us with a smile.

"Is this what scared you?" He showed us a big, blue-and-pink butterfly. It flew away.

"Aw, that's so cute!" Cat said. Both Beck and Jade grinned.

"Well, that was really scary and dangerous," Jade remarked. I felt my face turn red.

"Well, it could have been." Beck nodded.

"I guess we can't be too careful, that's proven by now." We went outside to see if André and Robbie found anything interesting.

Robbie

While we waited for the others we sat down in front of the cottage and tried to arrange the journals in the right order.

"How long do you think this guy's been stuck here?" André asked when we found a journal with "_day 9822"_ on the first page. I quickly did the calculation in my head.

"More than 26 years." That was really depressing.

We'd put it all in order when the others walked up to us.

"Have you found anything?" Beck asked. André pointed at the journals.

"Lots and lots of 'em." The others sat down with us. Tori picked up a journal and browsed through it.

"Who are all these people?" she wondered.

"Who **were** all these people, you should say," André answered.

"They are probably the ones who built these cottages. But they're gone now. That man was probably the last one of them."

"He must have been alone for a long time," Cat remarked.

"I feel a little bad for chasing him away from his home." I put an arm around her.

"O, don't worry kitty cat, he still has his cheetah friend." She smiled at me, and my heart jumped.

Jade

"So, do we stay here?" Tori asked the obvious question. I thought we should. I mean, we wouldn't have to build shelter for ourselves. Which probably wouldn't work anyway. The others seemed to have the same thoughts.

"I want the one Tori and I searched, maybe the butterfly will come back!" Cat seemed to have forgotten all about the creep that used to live here.

"What if he comes back? I don't want him to kill me in my sleep or something," I brought up another problem.

"I don't know. Someone can stay up at night and wake the others if he gets too close," Beck made up. That could work.

"So Beck and I'll take the middle one," I decided, since that one was bigger. André looked like he was going to protest, but I glared at him menacingly and he swallowed his words.

I smiled at no one in particular, glad it still worked. Then I got up to put my stuff into my new "house".

**This chapter is boring. I know. But it had to be written. Don't hate me for it, I have to follow a certain storyline. **

**It's a very secret storyline, even I don't know what it is yet ;D **

**There's lots of Bade coming! Don't leave me just yet :)**

**Xxx Red**


	13. And then there was trouble

**This one's kinda cool, I think. Heheh, you'll see. It's better than the last one, for sure :) I'm posting it today because chapter 12 sucked and you guys deserve waaaay better. And I think this is way better, so... Really I talk too much. And still I think a lot of people say I'm very quiet... XD**

Jade

There were a lot of things I'd missed the last week. Privacy was definitely one of them. When you're all stuck together you don't really have a choice other than to just put up with each other. But now that we all had our own cabin I finally had some time for myself. And Beck of course, but that was only a good thing.

"Things are looking better now, huh." We'd both taken one of the beds. He took the one that looked like it'd been used, which I was grateful for. We were both just lying there with our eyes closed, enjoying the much missed quiet. Or at least the absence of Cat and the others.

"I guess. But we're still stuck here." He sighed.

"Yeah. But they'll find us."

"You've been saying that a lot. But I haven't seen anything that proves your point." He sat up and looked at me.

"They **will** find us." As convincing as he tried to make it sound, I knew he was just saying it to keep me and the others from giving up.

"I just hope they do before we end up like mister old, crazy and lonely," I sighed, and he laughed.

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

Robbie

I spent the rest of the day reading the journals, and when I'd finished those I moved on to the books about plants Jade had found in their cabin. I found lots of fascinating stuff about hundreds of plants, and also animals. I also found out there were at least a hundred ways to die here, only by getting poisoned.

I told the others what I'd found out when it was getting dark, and we sat in a circle with some of the fruits we found in the cottages.

"So apparently there were five of them. They were on their way to another island, but shipwrecked during a storm and ended up here. One of them was a botanist, that's why there's so much info on plants. This guy Charles was sort of their leader, and together they lived here for about twenty years. Then there was another shipwreck, and two other people washed ashore. And, well, when they weren't saved they kind of... died."

I hated to say this. We were all supposed to keep hoping, and this story wasn't helping. But the truth is the truth.

"Hey, who do you think the guy we saw was?" Tori asked. I'd been thinking about that myself.

"I believe it's Charles." The others looked at me, asking for an explanation.

"You see, one day one of the people killed a cheetah, and then they found out it had a cub. So this girl Anne wanted to keep it, and Charles, who apparently had a crush on her, allowed her to. The others didn't agree with it, so only Charles and Anna ever took care of it." I saw the others started to understand my theory. Well, except for Cat, I wasn't even sure if she was listening to me.

"So that cat we saw, was the one Charles and Anne raised," Beck concluded. I nodded.

"I think so. And it probably wouldn't have listened to the other people, since they never cared about it." I thought it was a pretty good theory.

"That's pretty smart," André remarked. I smiled proudly.

"Poor Charles," Cat sighed. "He must have been really lonely."

"Yeah, at least we have each other," Tori agreed.

"I'm so glad," Jade sarcastically said. Beck put his arm around her.

"Aren't you glad you're not alone out here?" She admitted she was.

Jade

My arm hurt. Worse, it was killing me! I hardly listened as Robbie told us something about the people that had lived here and were now dead. I really didn't care what he was talking about, it usually didn't make much sense anyway. I only rejoined the conversation when he was done.

"Yeah, at least we have each other," Vega said with a big smile.

"I'm so glad," I said, annoyed. Right now I'd much rather have an aspirin. Of course Beck would try and make me change my mind.

"Sure, whatever," I said, to make him stop talking to me. It was hard to concentrate when my arm felt like someone was ripping it off.

"Hey, are you okay?" I heard Beck's worried voice ask. It sounded strangely far away. I think I said I was fine, but I couldn't hear myself say anything. I looked around in panic. Black nothing was starting to appear all around me. Was I fainting again? I got a quick glimpse of Beck's worried face before everything turned black.

Beck

"Jade!" I yelled when she fainted again, seemingly out of nowhere. She'd been leaning against me, so I easily stopped her from falling on the ground.

"What's wrong?" Tori asked confused.

"I don't know!" I yelled. How was I supposed to know everything around here?

"Hey, man, easy," André said, both warning and compassionate. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. That usually wasn't a problem for me, but I'd never been this worried. What WAS wrong?

"Maybe the wound started bleeding again," André suggested. I nodded, and started to unwrap the bandage. Tori and André sat down next to me. We all gasped when we saw what the bandage had hidden.

"That does not look good," André stated the obvious. I just shook my head. Around the wound was a red welt, a bit further the skin had a sick blue color, and it was still bleeding.

"How is that possible?" Tori asked. "I mean, isn't a wound supposed to stop bleeding after you put a bandage on it?"

I felt like yelling at her, but I told myself it wouldn't be of any use.

"Man, we've got to clean it," André said, keeping a clear head. Which was usually my job.

"How are we supposed to clean it?" I didn't have any medical knowledge, and neither did he as far as I knew.

"Salt water," someone else said. We all turned our heads in surprise. Robbie twitched uncomfortably.

"You're supposed to clean it with salt water," he elaborated. We all still stared at him.

"It was in those books about plants." André looked at me.

"I'll go get some." I nodded and looked back at Jade. She was pale, except for her cheeks. I felt her forehead.

"Fever," I mumbled. Tori put a compassionate hand on my shoulder.

"She'll be okay," she said. Like she'd know.

"Hey, Tori?" Robbie said. Tori turned around.

"Yeah?"

"Can you make a fire?" Then she probably nodded, or shrugged or something, but I wasn't looking at her.

"I took a piece of flint from that mountain, it's in my bag," I said without looking away from my unconscious girlfriend. I'd taken it for emergencies, and this was definitely one.

Tori

"Why do you want a fire?" I asked when I'd found the flint. Robbie hesitated and looked at Beck.

"I think she might be poisoned," he whispered. I hadn't even considered that option yet.

"But... how? She got cut with a knife!" I looked up. "Hey Cat, can you get some wood?" Cat nodded and ran off. Robbie got a bit closer, apparently not wanting Beck to hear what he said.

"In one of the journals it sais Anne died after being stung by an animal, and Charles captured it and used it to poison his knife, sort of like a repayment." I looked at him with wide-open eyes.

"And you say that now?" His cheeks turned red.

"I- I only just thought of it." I sighed.

"Okay, but why do you need a fire?" He shrugged.

"Hot water could help get the poison out."

Cat returned, her arms full of wood.

"Is this okay?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yeah, great. Why don't you stay here with Robbie?" I said, trying to comfort her. She nodded, and I took the wood from her. I tried to make a neat pile, but it kind of failed. Robbie got up to help me, and we finally managed to create a small fire.

Beck

Cat's coconut pans proved to be very useful. The others boiled some of the water, while I tried to clean the wound with the rest. Jade twitched and screamed, still unconscious, when the salt touched the wound. My heart ached, but I had no choice.

"It'll make it better, I promise," I said, hoping she could somehow hear me.

**Heheh. Yeah. They're in trouble now. And I'm really sorry to say still have to start on the next chapter, so that might take a while :(**

**But hey, I'm curious what's going to happen myself too, so I'll write and post as soon as possible. I do have to add I'm probably not going to be home a lot tomorrow, so unless I can finish it today it's gonna be at least tomorrow evening (in my time, and I'm in the Netherlands) Sorry!**

**Xxx Red**


	14. Sick

**Sorry for not updating yesterday, I was away the whole day and when I got home I had a writers block and it didn't work at all. Sorry!**

Jade

When I woke up I felt sick and my throat hurt. The pain in my arm was less, though. I looked around, wondering where I was.

"Hey, you're awake!" someone yelled. The familiar red hair appeared in front of me.

"Yeah." I smiled painfully.

"We were all so worried!" I tried to remember what exactly had happened, but everything was vague. It was actually kind of hard to think straight.

"Where's Beck?" Cat looked behind her.

"Asleep, he didn't want to leave you but he was really tired." It took my brain a while to process her words.

"How long was I out?" I asked anxiously.

"A few hours," she said vaguely. Hours? I tried to get up, but I was too tired.

"Can you wake him up?"

"Kay kay. Hey Beck, Jade's awake!" He immediately sat up.

"How is she?" Cat giggled.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" He got up. I smiled at him.

"How are you feeling?" I needed some time to think about that, because my brain still didn't work properly.

"Sick," I summarized. He sat down next to me.

"You got poisoned." That sounded logic, once it landed.

"Oh." Cat giggled again. Beck and I both looked at her.

"Whatty?"

"Why are you laughing?" She looked at us innocently.

"Jade's saying funny things." I tried to think of anything funny I might have said, but since it was actually difficult to remember anything I'd said at all I couldn't think of anything.

"Cat, why don't you go see what Robbie's doing," Beck said to her.

"Kay kay." She left.

Beck

"Hey Beck, Jade's awake!" I woke up immediately and sat up.

"How is she?" I quickly put a shirt on.

"I don't know," Cat giggled. Ehm... how can she not know? I got up and walked up to the girls. Jade smiled at me. She looked a bit drowsy.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her anxiously. It took her a long time to react.

"Sick." She looked sick, too.

"You got poisoned," I explained. Again, it was silent for some time.

"Oh," she finally said. She still had a vague smile on her face, like she didn't fully realize what was going on. I heard Cat giggle, and I looked at her.

"Whatty?"

"Why are you laughing?"

"Jade's saying funny things." I thought Jade's vagueness was actually rather worrying. But I wasn't going to say that to the innocent little redhead.

"Cat, why don't you go see what Robbie's doing," I said, to get her away from here. "Kay kay."

I turned back to Jade.

"How is your arm?" She stared at me for some time, then looked at her arm. We hadn't put a new bandage on it, and it still had a sick red-and-blue color.

"There's a cut on it," she stated. I frowned.

"That happened yesterday, remember?" She looked confused for a moment.

"Right." I was starting to get really worried.

"But I actually meant, does it still hurt."

"Oh!" She looked at it again. "Not really." That was good. I thought.

"Hey, why don't you wait here, and I'll go get something to eat," I suggested. I really wanted to talk to André, or Tori, or even Robbie, to think about what we should do. She nodded, and leaned back.

Jade

I'd hoped my brain would wake up, but it didn't. In fact it only got worse.

"How is your arm?" Beck asked. It took me about a minute to process the question. Then I looked at my arm.

"There's a cut on it." _How did that get there again?_

"That happened yesterday, remember?" _What happened yesterday? Oh, right, the cut. _

"Right," I said, trying to sound convincing. I don't think he believed me, though.

"But actually I meant, does it still hurt."

"Oh!" _Of course he meant that._ I looked back at my arm, trying to find out if it actually hurt.

"Not really." I looked at Beck. He looked back at me.

"Hey, why don't you wait here, and I'll go get something to eat." Fine by me, I wanted to sleep anyway.

Tori

We all waited for Beck to come out. All Cat had told us was that Jade was "being funny," so we didn't really know what to expect. When he finally walked up to us he looked terribly worried, so we braced ourselves for the worst.

"How is she?" André asked when he reached us. Beck sighed.

"I'm not sure, she's acting really... weird." We all looked at him curiously.

"How weird's weird?" André finally asked our unspoken question. Beck ran a nervous hand through his hair.

"She's... like half asleep." Okay...

"Isn't she just tired?" I asked. Beck shrugged.

"I'm not a doctor." He sounded panicked.

"Hey, man, calm down." André got up.

"You're shaking, sit down!" Beck looked like he was going to protest, so I quickly got up.

"I'll take care of her, okay?" If she'd ever let me, anyway. Beck nodded, so I walked towards their cottage.

She was sitting up when I came in.

"Hey," I greeted her. She didn't react. I sat down next to her.

"How are you feeling?" She stared at me.

"Where's Beck?" She was still pale, but her cheeks were glowing. I felt her forehead.

"You still have a fever." She didn't even pull away. She looked at me with a frown.

"What's up?" She shook her head.

"I'm tired." I smiled at her.

"That's okay, you want a blanket or something?" It felt weird to talk to her like this. She'd have totally killed me if this were a normal situation. Now she only closed her eyes and lied back down. I understood what Beck meant with "weird" now.

"Just call if you need something," I said, not sure if she was asleep or not.

"What 'd she say?" André asked when I walked back outside.

"Not much. She asked for Beck, and then she said she was tired and fell asleep."

"I should go see her," Beck said, and tried to get up, but André pushed him back down.

"Tori said she's asleep. You've got to get yourself back together, man!" I was worried about him. We'd all had some kind of breakdown during the last week (at some point I found myself screaming at everyone, even Cat), except for him. I feared he was getting his on a very bad moment. I turned to Robbie and Cat, who were both very quiet.

"Is there anything in your books about poison?" Robbie nodded.

"Yeah, lots of stuff. But every poison is different, I don't know where to look!" I thought for a moment.

"Is there anything on symptoms?" A smile appeared on the boy's face.

"Yeah! I'll look immediately!" He ran into his cottage. He only came back half an hour later.

Beck

I wanted nothing more than for Jade to get better. She didn't deserve this! André and Tori made very clear they didn't want me to stay with her all the time. But I HAD to know how she was! After fifteen minutes of what seemed endless torture I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and walked back to our cottage. I felt André's eyes in my back, but I didn't turn around. I knew he was only trying to help, but he just didn't understand. I couldn't lose her. I couldn't!

I practically ran inside, only to find Jade sound asleep, as Tori said. I sat down next to her, the same place I'd been for hours throughout the night. I softly put a hand on her forehead. It felt like I was touching a heater. I didn't need a thermometer to know her fever was way too high. She twitched when I lifted my hand, so I put it back and gently stroked her hair. I wanted her to wake up, yet I didn't. I'd been told sleep was the best medicine. Still, I'd rather have something that worked a bit faster.

I put my head on my knees. I hated this waiting, with all my heart. Damn, why couldn't she just open her eyes, get up and be herself again? I smiled at the thought of her waking up and seeing me sit her like this. She'd probably say something like-

"Stop whining!" If I'd been standing I'd have jumped. Now I just looked up really quickly, painfully twisting my neck. She was looking at me with an amused smile.

"You're up," I stated dryly. She rolled her eyes.

"Well, not really." I grinned.

"Hey, now that you're awake, how are you feeling?" I saw her hesitate.

"Fine. Can you get me something to eat?" I nodded.

"Sure, back in a minute. Stay awake, okay?"

"Yeah, just get me food." I was way too happy to have her back to protest.

The others stopped me as soon as I walked outside.

"We need to talk to you," Tori said. It sounded urgent. But Jade was waiting for me...

"It's about Jade." Well, that changed things.

"What is it?" Tori looked at the cottage Jade was in.

"Maybe we should discuss this somewhere else," she said.

"Hey!" someone screamed from inside. I turned around and walked back in.

"What's up?" I heard Tori walk in behind me. Jade was sitting up, her arms crossed.

"If you're gonna talk about me you can do it in here." I thought she had a point. I looked at Tori, who seemed less happy with it. But apparently she didn't have a good argument not to stay here. She turned around and called Robbie and André.

Jade

"I sent Cat for some more coconuts," André said while walking in. Then he looked at me.

"Hey, girl! How'r ya doin'?" I shrugged.

"Fine, I guess." That wasn't exactly true. I was fine, in the sense that my head had started working again, and my arm didn't hurt anymore. But I still felt sick. And not just a little. I didn't want to worry the others, though, especially Beck. Good thing I was in an acting school...

"So, what's your big news?" I asked with a fake smile. Tori, André and Robbie shared some uncomfortable looks.

"We, ehm... read those books about plants and the journals again, for more information and all," Tori said in a very soft voice. _Bad news. _Beck took my hand. He was worried, maybe even more than me. I saw it in his whole expression, although I knew to others he looked completely calm.

"Well, we already knew could be lethal, since it killed Anne." I had no idea who that was. I looked at Beck curiously.

"Anne's one of the people that lived here before us," he quickly explained. _She died? Because of the same poison that... Damn! _

"The biologist, John, said something about the animal in one of his books," Tori continued. They apparently knew a lot more than me. Since when did I get poisoned by an animal? Didn't matter, anyway.

"So. What 'd he say?" Tori breathed in deeply, and I closed my eyes, bracing myself to hear the worst.

"The poison works slowly, but effective. It can effect multiple parts of the body, which is used by the animal to slow, paralyze, and sometimes kill the prey. In big amounts the poison can be lethal for humans, but it's usually not."

She said it like she was reading it out. I opened my eyes, to find out she was.

"How is that bad news? This means it's not always lethal, right?" Beck sounded hopeful. I was too.

"It might not be," Tori confirmed.

"But what Charles wrote about Anne the period before she died... it's not good." She looked at me.

"Even if it doesn't kill you- this won't be easy."

_Okay, so... I might just be in a lot of pain._ I could deal with that. I thought. At least I probably wasn't going to die! And who knows, maybe it would be different with me. Because I got a smaller amount or something. That was possible, right? I looked around at my friends.

"Well, then we just... wait until it's over, right?" I said optimistically. Tori looked at me, for some reason she had tears in her eyes. "You're underestimating this, Jade. It's not gonna be just a little fever, you're gonna be REALLY sick!" She was worried about me. How touching.

"Just for the record, Vega, I already AM really sick. I think I can deal with it." She shook her head in sympathy, making me want to hit her. The only reason I didn't was because Beck was still holding my hand, and I was actually still too tired to get up anyway. Suddenly the crowded cabin started to get oppressive. I looked at the others.

"Okay, you told your news, can you get out now?" They all looked worried, except for Beck, who looked relieved. I didn't quite get what they were all complaining about. I mean, at least I had a good chance of surviving! And I really felt like I was getting better. They all attempted to leave. Beck let go of my hand, but I told him to stay. I wanted to talk to him.

Beck

When she told me to stay I sat back down.

"What's up?" She frowned. "Does something have to be up for me to talk to you?" I grinned. She looked and sounded so much better than before! I was starting to believe it would all be okay soon.

"Great news, right?" She nodded.

"Yeah, one less way for me to die on a deserted island."

**I'm not sure what to think of this chapter. I'm a bit out of creativity I think. I kind of just want Jade to get better soon, but that's unrealistic and a bit boring. So I'm gonna have to torture her a bit more... I feel bad now. **

**I hope this was okay, please tell me what you thought about it, because I just don't know. Next chapter might take a while again because I have to think of something interesting enough for you to read and I haven't even started yet :(**

**Thanks to all you amazing reviewers!**

**Xxx Red**


	15. Nightmare

**This is a scene I wrote a while ago. I wasn't sure if I was going to use it, because it's kinda dark and depressing. I thought it fit in here, though. I tried to make it a bit more bade instead of just depressiveness. **

Jade (dream)**  
**He's right behind me, an evil grin on his face.

"You're worthless and you know it. Your dreams are pointless, nobody wants you." He's drunk, but that doesn't mean he doesn't mean what he sais. He hates me. I know he does.

"You're never going to accomplish anything!" Everything around us starts to go black, but I hardly notice. I stare at my father in horror. I know he won't hurt me, not physically at least. But his words hurt me more than anything. I want to run away, but my feet won't move.

"I'm taking you off school. We're moving to Europe. You'll never see your friends again. They don't care about you anyway!" I fall down on my knees.

"No! I don't want to leave! You can't do this to me!" He laughs, I can smell the alcohol in his breath.

"Nobody cares about you. You'll see." I don't have the energy to respond. He's lying! He has to be! I watch as all light disappears around me. The last thing I see is his face, triumphant, knowing he defeated me.

****I stare into the dark, and watch as small figures appear in the distance. When they comes closer I see it's Robbie with Rex on his arm, and the Vega sisters.

"Hey, Jade," Tori Vega says, like I'm not on the floor, like this is a completely normal day. I'd yell at her, but I feel exhausted, I can't move.

"What's wrong?" Trina asks with a big smile. Her voice is fake innocent.

"Whatcha doin' here?" Rex sais.

"Yeah, I heard you were moving to Europe," Robbie adds. I can't do anything but look up at them, begging them for help in my mind.

"Too bad." Tori smiles at me.

"I was waiting for a chance to go out with Beck. Now I have to wait."

"Or you could just go with him anyway. It's not like he wants to stay with her." Trina looks at me in disgust.

"Nobody likes her!" Tori nods.

"You're right. Anyone would choose me over her. I wonder how she got in at school anyways."

"Yeah, even Robbie is too good for her," Rex agrees. "Your daddy's right, you're worthless."

Another figure appears. It's André. Tell them, I think. Tell them they're wrong. I need to hear someone likes me. I trust André, he's a good friend. He'll be on my side.

"What are you guys doin' here?" He asks. Then he looks at me.

"You? Why are you still here?" My hope's gone. He doesn't want me around either.

"You always scare everyone, boss everyone around. Nobody likes you, nobody ever has!" The words hurt even more now, coming from someone I really trusted.

"Let's go," Trina says. "I don't want to have to look at her anymore." The others seem to agree. They turn around and walk away, back into the darkness.

Someone else approaches.

"Hey Jadey," a familiar voice says. But the tone isn't familiar. It sounds condescending and cold. My best friend stops in frond of me.

"Cat," I manage to squirm. She laughs.

"What's wrong, Jadey? You don't look so good!" I just stare at her. This can't be. Not Cat.

"You think you're so much better than everyone. Better than me! Well let me tell you something, you're not! I just acted like I'm your friend because I felt bad for you. But I know better now. It's all your own fault! Nobody'll ever care about you! You're just mean and arrogant!" She turns around and attempts to walk away.

"Cat, please," I squeak. She turns to look at me, an amused smile around her lips.

"Are you begging, Jadey? You're even more pathetic than I thought!" She walks away and disappears.

I know what's next. There's only one person who can still make things worse. I'm not surprised when I see him walk up to me.

"Hey Jade," he sais when he's close enough for me to hear him. It sounds so normal, tears form in my eyes. He's going to make things right, I know he is. His laugh makes me shiver.

"You can be so naive sometimes. I bet you really believed I loved you, didn't you?" I stare it him, not believing my ears. He can't be honest. He can't be!

"I never loved you, Jade," he whispers in my ear.

"I only stayed with you because I wanted to see you fall. You know I love Tori, don't you?" I shake my head disbelievingly.

"No,' I whisper. 'This isn't real. It can't be." He laughs.

"Oh, it's real, Jade. As real as can be. Just because you can't accept that doesn't mean it's not true." He doesn't walk away. Instead the darkness seems to come closer. It seems to swallow him, take him with it.

"Beck, no!" I scream, as he slowly disappears. He just smiles.

"Good bye, Jade." And he's gone.

* * *

Beck

Someone screamed and woke me up. It sounded close. Jade? It was still dark. My watch told me it was three in the morning. I groaned, for one moment forgetting Jade was ill. I soon remembered, though, when she screamed again.

"Jade!" I was quickly awake now, and less than a minute later I sat next to her.

Her eyes were closed, but she was moving around wildly. The fear on her face was agonizing.

"Jade, wake up!" I softly shook her shoulder. She screamed again.

"Wake up," I said more urgently. It was usually pretty hard to wake her up when she was sleeping.

"No, stay away from me!" For a moment I thought she'd waken up. But her eyes were still closed. I felt her forehead. Still burning. Her hands felt cold and clammy, though.

"No, mom, MOM!" I put my arms around her, and kept saying her name, hoping she'd wake up.

Jade

I woke up with Beck sitting on his knees next to me.

"Jade! Jade!" I felt his arms around me. My first reaction was to pull away, and I struggled to get loose. _He doesn't love me!_

"Jade, it's okay, I'm here!" I suddenly became aware of a loud noise. I realized it was me. I was screaming! I closed my mouth, and the noise stopped. Beck had let go of me, apparently realizing I didn't want him close.

"Jadey..." I looked at him, trying to remember where I was.

"W-what's going on?" I stammered. Beck sat down next to me.

"You were having a nightmare. You screamed in your sleep, and you wouldn't wake up." Just a nightmare. I hadn't had those for a long time.

"Jade, what..." I silenced him by pressing my lips against his. It might have been just a dream, but I'd missed him more than ever. He kissed back, clearly confused. I pulled back after a while.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I didn't answer.

"Was it about your dad?" I looked at him with wide open eyes. How did he know?

"You yelled for your mother," he softly explained. I felt my face turn red.

"Oh... well..."

"It's okay. I know he hurt you." If he only knew what my father had really done to me...

"Beck, I..." I felt guilty. For thinking, dreaming, he didn't love me. After everything he did for me.

"Jadey, please tell me." I wanted to, I really did. But I didn't know how, I'd never talked about this before.

'I... he... he said...' It was painful to even think about it. Because it wasn't just a dream, it was a memory.

"I'm sorry," he said honestly. I shook my head.

"Don't be. I should... I should have gotten over this a long time ago." I thought I had. But apparently I was wrong. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye.

"Jade West, do NOT blame yourself for the way that man treated you. It's NOT your fault! Of course you need time to get over this!" To imagine he only knew half of the story. He knew my father thought I was useless, and had made that very clear to me. But now I wanted to tell him everything.

"A few years ago..." I started. He looked confused; he probably thought I had told him everything already.

"My dad wanted to take me to Europe. He said nobody wanted me here, and... and everybody would be happy when I was gone. Every day after school he'd make me tell everything bad that happened, and he'd remind me of it all day. To prove his point." I saw the shock on his face, his clenched fists. He'd known my father hated me. But not how far he'd gone with that.

"Jade, I'm so sorry, if only I'd known..." he said, and I heard the anger and regret in his voice. I shook my head.

"This isn't your fault. You couldn't have stopped him."

"How did YOU stop him from taking you?" I shrugged.

"I refused, went to my mom for help. She didn't really care for me, but she wanted to stop him from doing what he wanted." I said it like it was nothing, but it wasn't. Of course it wasn't. Neither one of my parents had wanted me.

"So... that's what your dream was about? Your dad taking you away from... us?" I nodded hesitantly.

"That, and... other things." The part with my dad hurt, but not as much as hearing his words from the people I cared about. To see his words come true.

"I... I see everybody..." I felt tears form in my eyes. But I kept going. I told him the whole story.

"It's okay, calm down," Beck said. The sadness in his voice was clear. I wanted to say I was fine, but I couldn't. Not right now. I cried onto his shoulder, until I seemed to have no tears left. I looked up, glad I didn't have make-up on.

Beck

How could I not have known about this? After everything she'd told me, about her dad ignoring her, saying terrible things to and about her, how could I not know about this?

"So... that's what your dream was about? Your dad taking you away from... us?" I could hardly imagine what it must have felt like, to hear nobody wanted you every day. When had this been anyway?

"That, and... other things." More? What else could there be?

Then she told me everything. She was crying by the end, and I had to try not to do so myself. I told her to calm down. And every inch of me wanted her to forget about all of it and never have to think of it again. She put her head against my shoulder, and I felt her warmth through my shirt.

She finally stopped crying and looked up at me.

"It was just a dream," I told her.

"You know that's not how we think about you, right?" She smiled, despite her tears.

"Yeah." This was probably one the most personal conversation we'd ever had.

"Sorry I'm being such a baby." I looked at her in astonishment.

"Jade, after everything you've been through you deserve to cry." She looked like she didn't believe me. I knew she hated showing weakness. But it was good to talk sometimes.

"You are the strongest person I've ever met. A lot of people would never be able to deal with the stuff you dealt with so easily. But you can't expect yourself to just get over everything." I hoped she'd believe me. She rested her head against my shoulder again.

"So, you got any childhood trauma's you wanna talk about?" I smiled. Not me, my family is perfect." And miles away from us. But, as Tori had pointed out already, at least we still had each other. Jade yawned.

"Hey, it's half past three. We should try and get some more sleep," I said. She nodded, her eyes were already closed. When she didn't attempt to lie down I put her down myself. She grabbed my hand when I wanted to get up, so instead I laid down next to her. I only realized how tired I was when my head touched the bed and I immediately fell asleep.

**Well, just tell me what you thought! I'm still having a bit of a writers block, so I appologize for any stupid mistakes or very cliché stuff or people being OOC. I for some reason am a big lover of clichés, but I'm trying very hard NOT to put that in here. Heheh yeah I'm pretty weird ;)**

**By the way, how long do you guys expect me to leave them on the island? For the record, they will be saved. I might just let them stay there for a few years. Unless you guys don't want me to. Please leave a review :)**

**Xxx Red**


	16. Sickness sucks A lot

**Pretty short, and waaaay lighter than the previous ones. I don't know about you, but I hate when things are all darkish. I'm sorry for you people who like those kind of stories, but seriously, when I write dark stuff I feel depressed myself. So this story is gonna be as light as possible! **

**Which does not mean there's no bad stuff. There probably will be, because if there isn't nobody wants to read this. Isn't it weird everybody likes reading about bad stuff happening to people? Okay, I'm trailing off now. Enjoy!**

Jade

Tori had been right. I had underestimated this. I woke up with a burning throat and eyes, a banging headache, a sick feeling in my stomach and pain in every single muscle in my body.

The others forced me to stay in bed all day, which I didn't really mind about since moving, talking or even thinking hurt. I told Beck not to stay with me all day. He didn't have a bad day just because I I passed most of the time sleeping.

Once in a while one of them would bring me some food or water (which was pretty useless because I couldn't keep anything in), and talk to me a bit, but the day still passed terribly slowly.

Beck

I wasn't all that comfortable with leaving Jade alone, but she insisted I used the day for something useful. So me and André walked all the way up to the mountain where we'd found flint a few days before. We'd be gone for hours, so I had Tori promise me to check on Jade at least once an hour.

When we returned we went to the beach, where we assembled a huge pile of wood.

"This should get someone's attention," André said when we set it on fire. We both sat down in the sand, tired from the long walk and the hard work. It felt good to have done something useful, instead of pass the time playing games.

"We should head back," I said after a while. I wanted to see how Jade was doing. We got up.

"I'm glad she's probably gonna be okay," André said, guessing my thoughts.

"Yeah. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her." I tried not to think of the fact that I still could.

Jade

The rest of the week passed in a blur of good and bad moments. At some times I felt like I was gonna die, while at other moments I was sure I was getting better. Both days and nights were filled with nightmares and blurry dreams, showing up whenever I fell asleep.

Everybody was, in their own way, nice and supportive, which I thought was just really annoying. Especially Cat was being a nuisance; she kept coming in and then talked to me about something totally random. Mostly one of her brother's weird actions.

Tori and André regularly walked in as well, and although their (mainly one-sided) conversations were slightly less random and useless I still thought they were annoying.

Robbie was the only one who stayed away. I think he was scared of me. That actually made me smile. Even Cat was scarier than me, at the moment. I was basically just lying there, unable to do anything else. The worst I could have done to him was imagine cutting his head off with my scissors.

The only person I liked being with me was Beck. He didn't talk to me much, and therefore didn't expect me to talk back. He was okay with just sitting there with me, handing me a drink whenever my throat was trying to kill me. He managed to make a terrible week just a little better.

Cat

Tori, Robbie and I made lots of things. We went into the forest to search for stuff, like branches and flowers and rocks, and then we sat together and made pretty decorations for the cottages. I liked making flower crowns. I made one for all of us. Also one for Jade, but she didn't wanna wear it and told me to go away. I didn't like that she was ill; she was really mean to me sometimes. Beck said she was in a lot of pain, so I felt kind of sorry for her.

"Time passes quickly when you're having fun." That's what my mom always said. I missed her. And a lot of other things. But I did like our new life on the island. Every evening we would sit together, me and Tori and Robbie and André and sometimes Beck, and we'd sing and dance and eat bananas and coconuts and fish.

Robbie was really good at catching fish. I liked to watch him stand in the river and use one of my fishnets. I didn't like the dead fish, though. They made me sad.

Beck

After four full days in the cottage Jade reached her peak. Everything was fine, or at least not worse than the day before, when she woke up. But then, when she fell asleep again, we couldn't wake her up.

She was lying so perfectly still, for one moment I thought she was dead. My heart literally felt like it stopped beating. I was on the brink of collapsing in despair when André came with the brilliant idea not to jump to conclusions and feel her pulse.

"She's alive. But barely." Barely was enough for me. Barely meant still a chance. I sat down and felt her forehead. As I suspected. She felt even warmer than before.

"Maybe Robbie can find something in one of his books," André said. I was so glad to have someone thinking straight at moments like this!

"I'll ask him," he offered. I nodded, and he left. I stayed with Jade, who didn't wake up for the next few hours. Sometimes she moved in her sleep, or mumbled something, telling me she was still alive. I watched as her expression changed, when she dreamed. It's weird to watch someone dream. It makes you wonder what they are seeing right now. I tried waking her up a few times, without success.

She did open her eyes one time. She stared at me drowsily.

"'S it morning yet?" she asked in a very sleepy voice.

"It's past eleven," I answered, hoping it would wake her up.

"Can you get me some coffee?" Then she turned around and went back to sleep.

"I wish I could," I whispered.

André returned an hour later, with some kind of plant in his hand.

"Robbie sais this should help," he explained. I looked at the plant suspiciously. I didn't recognize it.

"Are you sure?" I wasn't going to just give her anything.

"It said so in the book. And besides, we don't really have another choice." Apparently you were supposed to eat the leaves of the plant, and it'd bring your fever down. I still didn't completely trust it, but I understood we had no choice. If her fever would go up any more, she wouldn't survive it.

Making her actually **take **the medicine proved another problem. She refused to open her mouth.

"Hold still," I hissed, when she turned her head away again. André was actually smiling.

"It's not funny!" I yelled at him. He quickly hid his laugh in a fake cough.

"Hey, maybe you should tell her it's coffee." That was ridiculous. And pretty smart.

"Jade, coffee!" I always used to wake her up like that when she slept at my RV. It was the only way to wake her up without having her kill you. She immediately stopped protesting and opened her mouth. I couldn't believe this actually worked!

She choked when I forced her to swallow the small leave. I felt guilty for lying to her, as stupid as that may sound. Her face had a disgusted expression on it, that made me wonder if we'd accidentally given her something poisonous.

I looked at André, who was at that moment smelling the plant, with almost the same expression as Jade.

"Ew, this stuff smells even worse than Robbie's socks!" I thought about asking him why he knew how Robbie's socks smelled, but decided not to. Some things you just don't need to know.

The medicine seemed to work, though. Her forehead definitely felt less warm, another hour later. She was calmer, too. Slowly I allowed my heart to start beating again.

**I hope you enjoyed it, and please please PLEASE keep reviewing! I want to know what I do right/wrong and what I should change and I totally LOVE it when I get ideas.**

**I've been checking my mailbox every 5 minutes over the last week, hoping for someone to take the time to give me some feedback. **

**To everybody who actually has reviewed (especially those who have more than once): THANK YOU YOU MAKE MY LIFE PERFECT!**

**Xxx Red**


	17. When bad things get worse

**Sorry, it took me a while to finish this, and I had to go for a walk with my family yesterday. My grandparents are going to Indonesia for a month soon. Well, like you care :) **

**I tried to put some Cabbie in this (for **Black Angel and Snowflake**, who was nice enough to send me a review) and I used another idea sent by a guest. Thank you for your reviews! Also to the people who just said they liked the story.**

**And I'm really sorry: I SUCK AT ROMANCE! Heheh, yeah, I don't have a life...**

Beck

We thought we'd had the worst. I was sure she was getting better. But then, after seven days, things got even worse.

When I woke up she was screaming at the top of her lungs, and she wouldn't calm down, no matter what I did. I wasn't even sure if she was still asleep or not. She was turning and moving, at some point even trying to push me away.

André and Tori came running in, alarmed by her screams. At that point I was trying to keep Jade from punching me in the face, so it must have looked pretty weird. They soon came to help me, though.

With the three of us we finally managed to stop her from practically attacking us. But she was still screaming, and struggling to get loose.

"Jadey, shhh, it's okay," I said soothingly, but she either didn't hear me or didn't listen. Her face was twisted in pain, and she was literally glowing with fever.

I was almost glad when Cat came in, a few minutes later.

"What are you doing?" she asked innocently, looking at us from the doorway. Her eyes showed a total lack of understanding. Probably because we'd all tried to involve her in this as little as possible. But maybe she'd be able to calm Jade down. They were friends after all.

"Cat, can you, ehm... try to stop Jade from screaming?" I said, hoping she wouldn't ask for further explanation.

She looked at me blankly for a second. Then she walked up to Jade, and sat down at the place I'd been sitting for hours over the last week.

Cat

"Jadey, Beck wants you to stop screaming." I looked at my friend. She looked really sick. I hadn't even known she was this ill, nobody had told me. She didn't stop screaming, except for one time when she gasped for air. But then she started screaming again.

"Jadey, you're hurting my ears!" Tears started to form in my eyes. Why didn't she listen to me? I wondered if maybe she was sleeping. My brother screams in his sleep a lot. But Jade's eyes were open sometimes, so she couldn't be sleeping.

One time she looked at me, and she looked so sad and agonized and she was crying, and I felt a little bad myself.

"I think maybe she wants to sleep," I softly told Beck. That seemed to scare him. Or worry him, because he never gets scared. Still, he looked pretty scared to me.

"Just- just talk to her, okay? So she knows we're here." I nodded. I thought that if she wouldn't stop screaming when I asked her to she probably wasn't able to hear me, but if Beck thought it would help her somehow if I talked to her I'd try.

"Beck wants me to talk to you," I told her. I could hardly even hear myself over her screams.

"I don't think it's good for you to scream so loudly. It'll hurt your throat." I saw she was still trying to get loose, but the others were holding her so that she could only move her head. She looked so small... It really scared me because Jade's always strong and it was strange to see her scream and cry like this. I started to cry myself.

"Ow, Cat, don't cry! She's gonna be okay!" Tori said, but I didn't believe her because if Jade's like this something must be really wrong. And I was a little mad at Tori and André because they were touching Jade while they know Jade doesn't like being touched. But Beck was okay with it so I didn't say anything about it.

"Hey Jadey, if you stop screaming I'll get you ice cream, okay?" I tried. Jade always got me ice cream when I hurt myself or when I was sad. But it didn't work with Jade. I thought maybe it was because she doesn't like ice cream much.

I tried everything I could think of, but she never even reacted, and after some time I didn't want to stay anymore so I got up and left. I heard Tori call for me, but I ignored her because I was still a bit mad at her. Not really mad, though, just a really little bit.

I didn't see Robbie outside, so I looked in his cabin but he wasn't there either, so I thought he must be at the river. Beck had told me not to go there on my own, but since he was with Jade and Robbie was at the river I thought it would be okay.

So I walked to the river on my own, and there I found Robbie, who was fishing with one of my nets.

"Hey Robbie," I greeted him.

"Hey Cat, what are you doing here?" He looked happy to see me, and I was happy to see him too because looking at the others being so sad and worried made me feel sad too, and Robbie wasn't sad and worried.

"Oh, just... nothing."

Beck

Cat left after about ten minutes without another word. Which meant one of us would have to try and calm Jade down.

"Can you hold her hands?" I asked André, who nodded. We'd thought about giving her the plant medicine again, but the chance of making her take it without one of us losing a finger was pretty small.

I'd have to wake her up somehow, or we'd have to wait until she was too tired to move. I knew which option I preferred. Although I thought her energy must be used up pretty soon.

Wit André holding both of her hands and Tori practically sitting on her feet I managed to put her head in my lap. At that point I had a banging headache from her constant screaming and a long scratch on my cheek from where her nail had touched me, but I ignored it.

I softly stroked her hair, which was messy and sweaty. "Jadey, please wake up," I pleaded. Not that I expected a reaction.

She kept screaming for exactly fifteen minutes. Then she collapsed, exhausted. André and Tori let go of her.

"I didn't know a person could scream that loud,"André panted. And to think his grandma screamed all the time.

"Yeah, or that she was that strong," Tori added. I didn't react. _Is she okay? Please let her be okay. _

Now that she was calm, weather it was good or bad, we could at least give her the plant medicine. She didn't even protest.

"She's just exhausted," Tori assured me. _Yeah, and probably still in a lot of pain. _

"Thanks guys, maybe you should go see where Robbie and Cat are," I said, wanting them to leave us alone for some time.

They did as I said, both giving me a compassionate look on their way out. Like they had ANY idea at all what this was like for me.

Cat

I sat down on my favorite rock and watched Robbie catch his fish.

"Do you wanna try?" he asked after some time. I shook my head. Beck said I wasn't allowed to go into the river.

"Come on, it's easy." I hesitated. I'd walked to the river on my own and nothing had happened. So why wouldn't I be able to go into the river and catch fish?

"Okay," I said, and got up from my rock. Glad I was wearing short pants I stepped into the river.

"It's slippery," I giggled. Robbie took my arm to help me not fall.

"Look, you hold it like this, and then-" He showed me what to do. I looked carefully if I saw any fish, and then I tried to quickly catch them.

"They got away," I said disappointed. Robbie chuckled.

"That's okay, kitty cat. You just need to practice some more." But I didn't like catching fish anymore so I wanted to walk back to my rock.

But I forgot how slippery it was, and I fell and hit my knee against the ground.

"Auwch!" Robbie was next to me immediately.

"What's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?"

"I fell," I explained. My clothes were soaked, but Robbie picked me up and carried me to my rock, and then he was all wet too.

"Let's have a look." My knee was a bit red, but it wasn't bleeding and I was happy because I don't like blood.

"Well, I think you'll be fine," he said, and he looked relieved.

"Thank you, Robbie," I said. He looked very confused now, and I giggled.

"For carrying me out of the river and looking at my knee!" I explained. He smiled at me, and I smiled back.

Suddenly I heard someone yell my name.

"Is that Tori?" Robbie asked.

"Think so. Tori, I'm here at the river with Robbie!" A few seconds later Tori appeared, and she looked worried and relieved and angry.

"Cat, we told you not to walk off on your own."

"But I'm here with Robbie!"

"Why didn't you tell us where you were going?"

"Because you were busy." I didn't understand why she was mad at me, and I started to cry. Robbie put his arm around me.

"Hey, kitty cat, it's okay, nobody's mad at you!" He looked at Tori angrily, which was weird because Robbie never looks angry, just scared.

Tori sighed and told us to come back to the cabins soon, and we said we would but then we stayed a while longer because it was warm and we were wet and we wanted our clothes to dry. And when we were dry we took the fish Robbie caught and walked back.

Beck

When she woke up later that day she was calm, but also very tired, even though she'd been sleeping for hours.

"How are you?" I asked for what seemed the millionth time that week.

"Everything hurts," she groaned. Her voice was hoarse. For some reason I wasn't surprised.

She moved a slightly shaking hand up to my face, to touch the scratch on my cheek.

"What happened?"

"It's nothing."

"You're bleeding." I hadn't even noticed.

"Really, it's nothing. Do you want something to eat?" She shook her head.

"How late is it?" I looked at my watch.

"About 5.30 pm." She frowned.

"Why?"

"I thought it'd be... earlier. What day is it?" We'd started to think in days on the island by now.

"Day fourteen." She looked very confused.

"I missed the whole day, didn't I?" I smiled painfully.

"Yeah, kinda." She got an annoyed look on her face.

"What? Is that bad?" It had been for me, but sleep was supposed to be good for her, right?

"I hate not being able to do anything." I could understand that.

"We can handle it, don't worry," I assured her. She nodded.

"But still." She frowned again.

"Haven't I been awake today? At all?" She seemed worried. But should I tell her what had happened?

"Well, you weren't exactly... awake," I started carefully. She looked at me expectantly.

"Just... screaming." She didn't like that. Well, I hadn't expected her to.

"Please tell me you didn't let the others in here," she groaned. She apparently read the answer of my face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't really have a choice," I quickly said, trying to save myself. She raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you not have a choice in letting people into our... house?" Her voice was cold and distant.

"Because you were-" Okay, bad idea. I didn't want her to be mad at herself.

"Well, don't keep me waiting!" She almost sounded like herself. Except that her voice was still soft and hoarse.

"I couldn't calm you down on my own," I summarized. I saw her quickly glance at my cheek.

"Did I- Oh." She shamefully looked at her hands, the anger in her expression gone immediately.

"Hey, don't worry about it. At least you're okay now," I said soothingly. She gave me a look that was a mixture of irritation and shame. I chuckled.

"What?"

"You just almost seem like yourself again."

She looked at me like I was crazy, and I probably deserved it. But I was once again way to glad she was feeling better to care.

**Jade's gonna get better next chapter, just so you know. Which means I can start at something all new. Anything you wanna see? (Well, read, because I'm not awesome enough to own the TV show) **

**Or are you getting bored? In that case they are gonna be saved soon. **

**PLEASE REVIEW TELL ME! ANY IDEAS ARE WELCOME!**

**Xxx Red**


	18. Better & Bored

**Ugh... took me like forever to write this. And it's not even that good, I think. **

**School started again, so I have less time to write. And for some reason the stuff I learn there doesn't inspire me much... Seriously, who wants to know how exactly the Netherlands looked ten thousand years ago? Who cares?**

**Okay, you probably don't care about my life. So enjoy the chapter. Or not :/**

Jade

I woke up, and for the first time in twelve days I didn't feel sick. I actually felt great! Beck was still asleep, so I silently got up and walked outside. I was more than done with the small cottage.

The feeling of sun on your face, the freshness of the air, after a long time of being inside, it's impossible to describe. The place probably hadn't changed that much, but it was a world of difference to me. The grass, the trees, even the cottages, it all seemed like something out of a dream.

I usually hated those kind of things, but today I loved the perfectness of it. I closed my eyes and just stood there for a while, enjoying the sun and the smell of grass. I didn't know how long I stood there and I didn't care. Someone else did, apparently.

Beck

The first thing I did when I woke up was check on Jade, just like every other morning. She was usually still asleep, even before she got ill. But her bed was empty. I immediately panicked. Where could she be?

I quickly put a shirt on and went outside.

"Damn it Jade, you scared me," I said, a little angrier than intended, when I found her there. She turned around to look at me, irritation all over her face.

"What, can't I go outside on my own?" She did have a point there. Guess I was overreacting a bit.

"I just didn't expect you not to be there. Does this mean you're feeling better?" She smiled.

"I feel great." I could see she wasn't acting this time. I walked up to her, and she kissed me. I put my arms around her. She pulled back way to early, and looked up at me.

"I wanna go to the beach," she said, and I saw no reason not to take her there.

Jade

The first thing I noticed was the big pile of wood in the sand. It was still smoking.

"You made a fire?"

"Yeah, to signal ships or planes." Guess it didn't work. I sat down in the sand, and Beck sat down next to me.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," he said.

"So am I." Seriously, being ill usually sucks, but being ill and being stuck without medicine makes those little sick days at home look appealing.

"So did I miss anything?" I asked after some time. They'd had twelve more days to get used to island life; I'd have to pick everything up quickly. Beck told me about their daily businesses. He made it sound normal. I didn't think I would get used to it so easily.

"We've divided the tasks. We need to get food, water and sometimes other stuff. Cat and Tori have become pretty good at making all kinds of things. Robbie usually catches fish, and André and I take care of other food like coconuts and fruits, water, and we keep the fire burning. Speaking of which."

He got up, and pulled a piece of flint and a small pocket knife out of his pocket. One perfect movement and a spark set the wood on fire.

"Hey, we should get back. The others are probably up by now." He reached out his hand.

"Sure."

On the way back I started to feel dizzy. I didn't say anything about it, determined to be completely better. At some point the by now familiar black spots started to cloud my vision, and it was hard to see where I was going.

"Are you all right?" Beck said worried, when I tripped over something for the third time.

"Fine," I said, but it sounded pathetic. He stopped walking.

"Jade, what's wrong?" He looked at me sharply. I looked back, but after some time I had to look away.

"I'm fine," I mumbled. It became even less convincing when everything started to spin around me and I had to grab his shoulder not to fall.

"You're dizzy," he stated. I shook my head, as if that would somehow make it go away. Not a smart thought, because it only made me more dizzy.

"Come on, I'll get you to the camp."

"No, I'm fine," I protested, but he picked me up without effort. I guessed I can't have weighed much; almost everything I'd eaten the last twelve days had come out immediately. Which was probably the problem right now. He carried me all the way back to the cottages, and I hated being too weak to prevent him from it.

I didn't struggle, knowing he wouldn't let go of me anyway, and rested my head against his shoulder instead. When we were almost there I told him to put me down. I didn't want to look like some idiot in front of my friends.

Tori

I was a bit surprised when we saw Jade and Beck come out of the forest. I'd expected them to still be asleep.

"Morning," Beck greeted us, happier than he'd been for the last two weeks.

"Morning." I looked at Jade.

"You're better?" She nodded. I thought she looked pale, which was probably better than the feverish red from before. I noticed she was leaning on Beck, though.

"You should probably eat something," I figured. I saw her eyes lit up.

"You want a coconut, a banana, a mango, or, let's see... a papaya?" She didn't look like she cared much.

"You should try a mango, they're delicious. Cat, can you get Jade a mango?" I yelled at my friend, who was just walking out of our cabin, where our food storage was.

"Sure thing." She soon came back with the fruit.

We sat down on the small trunks we used as chairs, except for Cat, who tried to hug Jade. Who looked at her warningly, so she stopped and sat down too.

"Are you better now?" she asked instead. Jade nodded.

"And starving. Give me that." Cat handed her the mango. She seemed to enjoy it as much as the rest of us had, if not more.

Beck

When Robbie and André got up, we all started doing our usual daily things. Jade watched us from one of the trunks, and from time to time I checked if she wanted to eat or drink something. Which she found terribly annoying, but by now I did it almost automatically.

Tori and Cat were sitting next to Jade, making... something. I didn't know what it was, and I didn't ask, because the usual reaction was: "You'll see when it's finished."

Robbie was at the river catching fish for breakfast (yeah, breakfast and fish isn't a great combination, but we needed the proteins. Or so I was told), and André and I made sure the fire was burning (to cook on, not for warmth, since the sun gave enough of that by itself), got water, and then went into the forest to look for some more fruits. Because we didn't have enough of that yet. Oh wait, we did. So it was actually just to give us the idea we could do something useful.

When André and I returned after about thirty minutes Robbie was already back, and he was cooking the fish he caught. The girls had apparently finished their... whatever it was, and were helping Robbie.

We dropped our findings at the girl's cottage, which had become our "storage", and André went to help the others. Not that they needed it, but again: we all wanted to have something to do.

I walked up to Jade, a bit guilty for leaving her alone now that she was finally better.

"Hey," I greeted. She looked up.

"Hey." She sounded unhappy.

"What's wrong?" She shrugged.

"I'm bored."

"Well, you could..." I realized there wasn't that much left to do.

"You can always..." She smirked painfully.

"Yeah, exactly. You guys are already used to this, but I'm not." I understood her point.

"I'm sure we'll think of something," I assured her. At that moment Robbie called us for breakfast, and we both got up.

I guess what you're thinking right now is: tropical island, no parents, awesome, do nothing all day. Well, you'll be surprised how soon that gets boring.

Of course there's the necessary stuff, like getting food and water, but when you're in a group of six people those things are done soon enough.

After our encounters with the crazy guy and cheetahs we didn't really want to go exploring anymore either. In other words: we needed something to do.

Jade

Everybody seemed to have accepted we'd be stuck here for a long time. Kind of depressing, although I didn't have that much to go back to.

Strange to see how they had all got skilled at their own "jobs" in the short (or well, short...) time I'd been ill. I watched Cat and Tori make something awfully colorful with flowers and other plant stuff. It seemed pretty useless to me, but at least they were doing something.

I soon got very bored, watching the others work. Nobody asked me to do anything, and I had no idea what to do. And believe me: after not being able to do anything at all for more than a week, I was more than eager to do ANYTHING.

We discussed the new task division during breakfast. I noticed everyone fearfully avoided talking about the future. Like we didn't all know we wouldn't be saved anywhere soon.

"We could always play football with coconuts," Vega joked. Or at least I think she was joking.

"Or we could throw them at your head," I responded. She looked offended.

"It was just an idea."

"We could make our own school!" Cat enthusiastically suggested.

"Cat, there are no teachers," André replied. It was quiet for a moment.

"What do we normally do that we can't do now?" Robbie finally asked.

"Except for going to school." Stupid question.

"Play on our phones," I said.

"Watch TV."

"Do homework."

"Play the piano."

"Go shopping."

"Sing!"

"Yeah, really useful to think about all the things we CAN'T do anymore," I scoffed. Beck put an arm around me.

"Hey, why don't we go play coconut football or something." I stared at him like he was crazy. Which he probably was. Suddenly another thought occurred to me.

"Why don't we go swimming?" They all looked like this was a completely new option. I looked around in disbelief.

"You mean you guys haven't done so yet?" I laughed at their foolish expressions.

"Okay, so... let's go swimming," Vega agreed with me. Only now I noticed everybody was already wearing their swimming suits, with a shirt over. Okay, they were pretty stupid.

**Yay, they found something to do for now. How nice. You know, I always loved the idea of living on a tropical island, but now I'm getting kinda bored. I'm really out of ideas, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me! **

**Love you guys, esp. the reviewers!**

**Xxx Red**


	19. Homesick, and who's there again?

**I can't believe how long it took me to write this! So sorry you guys! **

**I'm sorry the last chapter was bad, and I hope this will make it up to you. Not much action yet, but there's lots coming! **

**And this has some Cabbie (just a tiny bit) and Tandre. Although I'm not sure if I'm gonna make that romance or just friendship, cause I prefer them just being friends. Let me know what you want!**

**Thank you for all the ideas, I'm definitely going to use some. And thanks to all other reviewers, too. You make my day :)**

Robbie**  
**We'd only been there for three weeks, but it seemed like months.

"Isn't it incredible?" Tori said. "If we hadn't crashed, we'd be on our way home right now!"

I didn't quite understand why that was incredible. To me it seemed like torture, the idea that if everything had gone according to plan we'd be in the plane, waiting to see our parents. I missed them more than anyone. Except Rex, maybe. He was my best friend.

Tori  
Wasn't it strange to imagine sitting in the plane, flying home? It seemed impossible. But at some point they would find us. And we would go home. I was sure of it. I tried to enjoy our time away, like it was vacation, like we were there because we wanted to.

And maybe, if we wouldn't have been stuck here, we actually would have. I mean, the place was amazing, so... But it wasn't vacation. And although I tried to stay positive ("at least we won't be bothered by Trina or Sinjin"), I knew the situation was getting more and more hopeless.

Cat  
I knew everyone was scared. I saw the looks on their faces every time we talked about home. They told me everything was fine, I didn't have to worry and we were going home soon. So I expected a plane to show up any minute, but I waited. And waited.

And there was no plane, no boat, not even a hot air balloon. I've always wanted to fly in a hot air balloon, but Jade said they don't use those for saving people. And then I asked why we had to be saved, and Tori said we didn't, but she said it so quickly I didn't believe it was true.

André  
I sat on the beach and thought about all the things I missed. My grandma, my parents, my piano... Man, I missed my piano. Although we sang every day and evening, nothing could ever replace the satisfaction of writing a song, the happiness of giving everything and finally getting what you want. And although I loved singing, I couldn't put my emotions in it like in a piece of piano music. First thing I do when I get home. If I get home...

Jade  
Everybody seemed depressed today. Even Cat was down, and less hyperactive than usual. I knew why, of course. Exactly three weeks ago our plane crashed here. Today was the day we were supposed to go home.

I sighed and looked around. Robbie sat with his head on his knees, and I wondered if he was crying. Probably.

Cat was singing softly, I recognized the song as the one she sung on the audition for Hollywood Arts. It reminded me of school, and home. That was probably why she was singing it.

I didn't know where André and Vega were, and I really didn't care. In my opinion the less Vega's the better. But let's not get our hopes up; there's only a really small chance she gets bitten by some poisonous animal or accidentally drowns or something.

My thoughts drifted off as I looked at Beck, the only good thing on this whole damn island. He was just sitting there, leaning against our cottage, his eyes closed. I wondered what he was thinking about. Home, I guessed.

He looked up and smiled at me. I smiled back, and he looked away again.

Really, I usually liked it when people are silent, but even I got depressed from this atmosphere.

"So you guys are just gonna sit here and whine?" I said. Cat stopped singing.

"I'm singing," she said.

"No you're not," I answered.

"Oh. Kay kay."

Robbie didn't look up at all, and Beck looked rather annoyed, so I decided to go looking for Vega and André, hoping they'd be in a better mood.

Yes, I actually wanted someone to be happy today. I didn't know why. I guess I'd been ill too long, and I wanted to make up for the lost time. Or something. So, I walked to the beach, where I found the people I'd been looking for.

Tori  
I found André on the beach. We talked for a while, about our parents, school, normal stuff... At least it used to be, but we'd all avoided talking about it. Thinking of home made us all feel terrible. But it was nice to finally talk to someone, even though it hurt to think of my parents. How worried they must be. At least I was pretty sure they were okay...

I looked at Jade anxiously as she walked up to us. She had a quite irritated look on her face, which wasn't usually a good sign.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi," André and I responded at the exact same time, and we laughed. Jade raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, you're hilarious." We stopped laughing.

"Not to be rude or anything," I started.

"But what are you doing here?" André finished my sentence. She shrugged.

"Everybody was being depressed, so I thought I'd go see if you were doing something... fun." André and I both stared at her.

"Okay... so... we were just... talking." She looked at me, emotionless.

"I could see that." Oh, why did she always have to say things like that?

"We were talkin' about home. So if you're just gonna be mean, please leave us alone!" Wow. That was... different. André looked a little shocked himself, too. Even Jade seemed impressed, just a little.

"So, just... keep on talking then." I glanced at André, and he looked back. We silently agreed Jade was acting weird.

"Ehm... okay." André and I uncomfortably continued our conversation.

"Do you miss Sikowitz?" I asked, giving Jade a quick glance. André nodded.

"Yeah. He was so crazy, I think I even miss his coconuts."

"But we have coconuts all the time," I chuckled.

"Yeah, but those were SIKOWITZ's coconuts." We were all quiet, both André and I gave quick glances in Jade's direction.

"Do... you miss Sikowitz?" I asked hesitantly, trying to include her in the conversation. Although I'd really rather have her go away. She looked at me.

"If it wasn't for his stupid trip, we wouldn't be here right now." I guess that's a no?

"Don't you even miss his coconuts?" I teased. André chuckled when Jade gave me a cold glare.

"O c'mon, I'm sure you miss something about 'em?" he said. Jade turned her eyes towards him.

"Let's see. He's crazy, calls me a gank, gives Vega all good roles, let Trina get into our school... No, I really can't think of anything." I looked at her incredulously.

"But... he's Sikowitz. He's your favorite teacher too, isn't he?" She moaned.

"There's really better things to miss than a crazy, barefoot man who drinks coconut milk all day." André and I looked at each other.

"Like?" we said simultaneously.

Jade  
Seriously, they miss Sikowitz? The guy who got us here in the first place? I'd hoped they would have a more interesting conversation. But hey, they're André and Vega, after all. And now I got myself in trouble.

"Like?" they asked me.

I tried to think of a good answer. My parents? Home? I really wasn't gonna say that. To Beck, fine. But definitely not Vega.

"Like..." Vega smiled.

"So I guess Sikowitz is quite a good thing to miss, right?"

"Whatever." Suddenly I was sorry I'd joined the conversation. I knew they didn't want me there, and this could get a little too personal for my liking. But I couldn't go away now.

"So you really don't miss anything?" Vega asked. There you have it.

"I didn't say that, Vega," I tried to save myself. But they wouldn't let me go so easily.

"Then what do you miss most?" I wonder if they were doing it on purpose. Or were they really interested? Didn't really matter to me anyway.

"I don't know, mybrother?" I randomly said. Vega looked surprised.

"I didn't know you had a brother?" I stared at her with a cold expression.

"There's a lot about me you don't know." I got up and walked away, leaving both of them confused.

Why do people always say things like that? Like they are supposed to know everything about you. I guess I was overreacting a bit, but whatever. They didn't need to know anymore about me than they already did. It was a lesson I'd learned a long time ago.

André  
I don't understand that girl. At all. One moment everything's fine, and then suddenly she lashes out like that. Why?

Tori and I watched her as she walked away, not once looking back.

"What was that about?" Tori asked. I shrugged.

"No idea. She probably just thought things were getting too personal" Tori nodded, in thought.

"What's up?" I asked, hoping to get her mind of this. Once Tori started to try and help someone, things usually got a bit... awkward.

"Isn't it bad if someone never talks about their feelings?" She seemed worried, but I really didn't want to get into this.

"I'm sure she has lots of people to talk to," I assured her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Like?"

"Well... Beck, and her parents..."

"Jade doesn't like her parents." That was true.

"I'm sure she and Beck talk more than enough. When they're not doing... other things." Tori nodded, and seemed to let it go for now. I was pretty sure the subject would come up again, though. I hoped she wouldn't bring it up when I was around.

Cat

Everybody was so quiet today. Something was wrong, but I didn't know what because nobody told me. I thought of all the things that could be wrong, but I could only think of good things. Jade was better, we were still on an amazing island...

I was starting to miss my parents, though. And my brother, and lots and lots of other things. We'd already been here for three weeks... That could be it! That's when I first understood we were really stuck there, and we might not be saved.

I softly sang my favorite song, trying to remember home. Jade interrupted me, but she walked away after some time, and I continued.

I think I'd been singing for a long time, all kinds of songs that reminded me of school and home and happy things, because when I looked up it was already lunchtime. Jade was back, and she looked cranky, and Tori and André came back, and they looked a bit more happy than the rest of us.

Because Robbie had been sitting with his head on his knees for hours, and Beck had gone in the forest and returned a short while ago, looking very tired, which made me wonder what he had been doing, but I didn't ask because Jade had told me sometimes people don't wanna tell stuff and you have to leave them alone. And for some reason I thought he wanted me to leave him alone right now.

Even during lunch it was quiet. We all ate our fruits (I took a banana, because I liked them most because they are yellow) and drunk our coconut milk, and glanced at each other all the time and then returned to our food.

"We're not going home," I stated when I finished my bananas. Now that I'd come up with the thought, I wanted it to be confirmed. They all looked a bit shocked, which made me worried I said something bad. I didn't think I said a bad word.

"We ARE going home, Cat," Tori said carefully.

"It might just... be a while." I nodded, knowing a while might mean a really long time.

"I miss my mom," I said, causing everyone to glare at all kinds of things like their feet and the sky and each other.

"We all miss our parents," Tori finally said, but still hesitantly, looking around at the others. Robbie nodded in agreement, and so did André. Jade looked a bit cynical, but I think she did agree with Tori because just for a second she looked sad, and Beck didn't look anything at all. As in, I couldn't see any emotion on his face, as usual.

"You think they miss us?" Tori smiled at me.

"Yeah, but they'll be fine. And we'll be too, so don't worry!"

Tori

We all got in a better mood after admitting we missed our parents. The rest of the day seemed more like any other day, playing games with coconuts (really, we had coconut football, coconut handball, coconut volleyball...) and singing songs. Then, a few hours later after dinner, I suggested we made a walk around the island.

It was the great advantage of being on our own: we could do whatever we wanted! Except go home, that is. So we could go for a walk at ten pm even if we had no idea when we would get back. And we were all curious about how big the island was. So we filled the few bottles we had with water, and got ready for the walk.

When we arrived at the mountain where the boys had encountered the cheetah weeks earlier, it was already dark. The moon and stars gave enough light for us to see everything, though. The sky always seemed to be clear here.

We took a break at the top of a cliff. André told us it was the same place they had lost Robbie. Who by the way didn't look very comfortable. Cat wasn't either, probably afraid of the wild animals. Robbie put his arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her... she allowed it. I smiled. I always knew they liked each other.

"What are you smiling at, Vega?" Jade said when she saw me look at the two. I turned around.

"Don't you think they are cute together?"

"The dude's a nerd," she scoffed. "She deserves better." I chuckled.

"Well, it's not like there's much choice here." Jade gave me a mean smile.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you and André haven't made your move yet." I felt my cheeks turn red.

"There's nothing between me and André," I mumbled unconvincingly. Jade was going to say something else, but at that moment Robbie screamed.

"There's someone over there, between the rocks!" I turned my head to see a shadow disappear, vanishing in the dark.

**Kinda cliffhanger-ish, sorry. I couldn't help it :) **

**Hey, keep reviewing and I'm gonna try to write the next chap as fast as possible. **

**I'm kinda out of it since school started again. Stupid lessons... So it might take a while, my apologies. Also for any OOCness, stupid mistakes etc. I can only try my best :(**

**I guess most of you don't even read all those author notes. Heheh sorry for talking so much ;) And thanks to the people who do read them :) And yeah, I use a lot of smileys...**

**Xxx Red**


	20. Can't stop getting hurt

**Ugh, this took waaaaay too long. So sorry!**

**Heheh Yay it's starting to get summer-ish. It's like 14 C outside! Yeah that's a lot where I live (well, in winter time)... I'm jealous of all you people who live around the equator :) SUN I LOVE YOU!**

**karlaserna, thank you so much for your reviews on earlier chapters! They make me smile and laugh and dance and now everybody probably thinks I'm crazy, but that doesn't matter because I'm so happy :D THANK YOU!**

**And of course thanks to all the other awesome people who took the time to review! I tried to use your ideas, as usual :)**

Jade

Needless to say, none of us felt very uncomfortable anymore.

"You think that was Charles?" Vega asked. I rolled my eyes.

"No Vega, I think it was Santa Claus."

"Ooh can we go meet him?" Cat chirped. I sighed.

"Cat, I was being sarcastic."

"Oh."

Beck wanted to look if the guy was still there, but I stopped him.

"He still has that knife, we don't want you to get poisoned as well."

"I thought you liked seeing people in pain," Vega joked. I looked at her menacingly.

"I'd sure love to see you in pain. Can't you jump off that cliff or something?"

She was about to make a remark when Beck came in between.

"Calm down you two, we need to focus." He looked at me significantly. Like it was my fault Vega was so annoying!

"So the guy is somewhere over there watching us, what are we supposed to do? I mean, it's not like we can just throw a rock at him and kill him or something," André pointed out.

I actually thought that was a pretty good idea. Would serve him right for cutting and poisoning me... Too bad the others all agreed we couldn't kill him. As Vega stated it, we were still 'civilized Americans'. Apparently those don't get rid of dangerous crazy guys.

"So then what do you want?" I asked irritatedly. Vega shrugged.

"Maybe we can ask what he wants?" So naive.

"I'll tell you what he wants. He wants us, be it alive or dead. This dude's crazy, he's been alone for years! You can't just expect to be able to, like, negotiate with him!" I mean, duh!

Vega nodded, apparently agreeing with me. How nice.

"Well, I suppose we could-" André was interrupted by a scream, coming from Cat.

I turned to look at her (she was still sitting with Robbie for some reason) and immediately saw what was wrong. About five centimeters above her head a large, wooden stick had drilled into the tree she was leaning against. It was still shaking, clearly thrown with a lot of force. André tried to pull it out, without success.

"He tried to kill her!" Robbie exclaimed, shocked. A grim expression appeared on his face.

"That's it! We have to take care of this before anyone gets badly hurt!" I scoffed. Like being terribly sick for twelve days isn't badly hurt.

Still, it was the most confident thing I'd ever heard him say. And I agreed with him, just this once. This guy wanted to harm Cat? He'd have to get past me first!

Cat

We stopped at the top of a cliff, and I was scared because I thought the cheetah might come back to hurt us. And Robbie was scared too, and then it was a little better because we were scared together and Robbie was really nice and he put his arm around me and I felt even better.

I think Robbie's really nice, I wonder why everyone's so mean to him sometimes. Although he can act really stupid too, like when he did that Robbarazzi thing on the Slap.

But right now he was nice, so I leaned into him and let him calm me down, which he did pretty well even though he was still scared himself. I could see because his hands were shaking a bit.

Suddenly André screamed, something about someone being somewhere, and he startled me, and Robbie patted my head and said it was okay. And we waited for some time and the others discussed something, but they didn't ask me about it so I didn't pay attention much.

Instead I told Robbie about the time my brother thought there was a snake in his closet and he tried to kill it with a broomstick, but it was actually our cat.

I was interrupted by something flying right over my head, and crushing into the trunk of the small tree behind Robbie and me. It made a loud noise when doing so, and I screamed, and then everybody was silent and they all looked at me.

I looked up. There was a wooden stick, just a few inches above my head, sticking out of the tree.

"He tried to kill her!" Robbie yelled. I gulped. That thing was meant to hit me?

"We have to take care of this before anyone gets badly hurt!" I didn't know what exactly we had to take care of, but I didn't want people to get hurt, so I nodded. I thought maybe it was the cheetah, but then I remembered cheetahs can't throw sticks at people, so that couldn't be it.

Tori

"Okay, um... what do we do?" I asked nervously. I expected another attack any second.

"What options do we have?" André asked. We all got a bit closer together, as if that would somehow prevent us from getting hurt.

"Maybe we should go back to the cottages?" Beck suggested, but Jade shook her head.

"And run from him? I don't think so."

"Well then what do you suppose?" Beck asked her, slightly annoyed. She didn't react. Instead she stared at somewhere behind us in the dark. I turned around to see what it was, but I couldn't discover anything in the shadows.

Suddenly I became aware of a soft droning. I thought it must be a bug or something, but then it stopped. Something flew towards us, or rather towards Cat and Robbie. Something small and really fast. Something like... a rock?

Cat

I still didn't really understand what was going on, but I was really scared now. Robbie hugged me and told me it was okay, but he was trembling a little, so I thought he must be either really scared or really angry. And Robbie was scared quite often, so I thought that must be it.

I tried to pay attention to what the others said, but because I didn't know what they were talking about and it was late and I was a bit tired I soon stopped listening and closed my eyes.

Suddenly someone screamed my name, and I opened my eyes, and Jade was running towards me, and she pushed me aside. I wanted to ask her why, but then I saw a rock crash against the tree, at the place my head had just been. I screamed, because I realized I could have just died if Jade hadn't saved me.

Beck

Everything seemed to go high-speed. Jade didn't react when I asked her something, then suddenly she ran towards Cat, and less than a second later they were both on the ground and a loud "BANG!" told me something hard had just crashed into something else.

"Are you okay?" Tori asked, hurrying towards the two.

I grabbed her arm, stopping her just before a second rock could hit her. It fell on the ground uselessly a bit further. Tori gulped.

"Thanks," she said hoarsely.

"No problem."

Jade

I almost dropped myself on top of her in order to get her out of the way of the incoming projectile. Just in time. One more second, and she'd have been crushed... I sighed in relief, but then Cat screamed.

"Are you okay, are you hurt?" I asked, wondering if she'd hurt herself in the fall. That'd be pretty ironic. She shook her head.

"I'm okay," she said in a small voice.

I heard another crash, and I looked around. Nobody had gotten hurt, luckily. I noticed Beck was holding Vega's arm. Had that rock been meant for her? Oh, if only it had hit her... Well, I guess I'd have felt bad for her. Whatever.

The noise that I'd heard before warned me of another incoming stone. I saw it fly towards us.

"Cat, move!" I yelled. Cat looked at me confusedly for a second, before understanding what I meant. Too late. The rock was too close. But I wasn't gonna let her get hurt... Again I threw myself on top of her, protecting her from the incoming threat. The rock hit me, followed by an intense pain...

Beck

Where everything had gone so fast before, it now seemed like slow-motion. The rock just missed me and Tori, but flew towards Jade and Cat, who were still on the ground.

"Cat, move!" Jade screamed, but the redhead didn't respond in time. When she finally did it was too late. _Do something!_ a voice in my head yelled. But there was no time. I watched, frozen in horror, as Jade pushed the little girl away, placing herself in the course of the stone.

A scream got me back to reality, and I hurried towards the two girls, followed by Tori.

"Jade, are you hurt?" She groaned, holding her right shoulder.

"What does it look like?" she hissed. I quickly knelt down next to her and carefully moved her hand. It wasn't a pretty sight. The rock had partially bored into her flesh, like a bullet,creating a small but very painful looking wound.

"Oh my god," Tori gasped.

"We've got to get this out," I stated. She nodded.

"Can you get some water?" I hope we had some left.

"Wow, hey, how are you planning on doing this?" Jade asked, her voice alarmed and very pained.

"I really don't know." I tried to think of a way to get the small stone out without hurting Jade more than necessary, but I couldn't come up with anything. I needed a doctor, now!

"Auwch, dang, that hurts," Jade hissed. I saw tears in her eyes, and I couldn't blame her. I noticed Cat staring at us, very pale.

"Cat, you go sit with Robbie, okay?" Jade said at that moment. The redhead nodded and walked over to Robbie.

"You just can't stop getting yourself hurt, can you?" I softly said when Cat was too far away to hear me. She smiled painfully.

"Yeah, well, we better get that thing out." She stayed impressively calm. I'd seen enough movies to know a shot wound hurts.

"You could try my scissors," she hesitantly offered.

"I don't know, what if I hurt you?" She shrugged, and, judging by her expression, was sorry for that immediately.

"Well, it can't hurt much more. And believe me, I know." She reached for her scissors, which she had moved to a cord around her neck since none of us was wearing shoes anymore. I took them from her, wondering how I was supposed to get the small piece of stone away with a thing like that.

Tori handed me a water bottle, and I carefully tried to clean the wound. Jade clenched her teeth together, but didn't complain. Then I put some water on the scissors, to clean them as well. As much as you can clean something with tepid water.

"Tell me if it hurts," I said softly. She nodded. Again very carefully I clenched the metal scissors around the small part of the stone I could reach without touching her skin. I gently started to pull it out. Jade screamed, and I immediately let go.

"Sorry, I'll stop," I mumbled. She shook her head.

"No, just get it over with."

Tori, who was standing next to me, coughed.

"Do you want me to try?"

I looked at Jade, who rolled her eyes. "I don't care who does it, just hurry up!"

I handed Tori the scissors and moved so she could sit down too.

Jade

Next time someone gets a rock thrown at them, I'm gonna let it hit. Dang, this really hurt! I tried not to scream when Beck moved the thing a bit. I failed.

"I'm sorry, I'll stop," he said, immediately pulling his hand back. But I'd really rather not walk around with a rock in my shoulder, so I told him to continue. Then of course Vega had to interrupt. At that point I seriously didn't care, so I let Beck allow Tori to try. I intended to get back at her for every wrong movement.

I looked at the small wound in fascination as Tori grabbed the rock with my scissors (which I could probably throw away after this), and pulled it out with a single movement.

I screamed (well, what did you expect? Have you ever been shot? Probably not), grabbed Beck's hand and squeezed it as hard as I could. Which is very hard.

"It's out," Vega stated dully.

"I noticed," I hissed. I picked up the stone, which Vega had dropped on the ground, along with my scissors. I noticed it was sharp, on the side that had apparently just been inside my body, as it was covered with blood. It was pretty small. Weird that it could still cause so much pain...

Beck bound something around my shoulder. Probably a part of his shirt, since it looked like it had been torn off.

"Now be careful, okay? No last-second rescues," he said earnestly.

"Wasn't planing on it," I muttered.

**I apologize if this is unrealistic; I don't know much about this kind of stuff. **

**I think this was a pretty suckish chapter, so I hope you could still enjoy it :(**

**I'll update ASAP, but I do need to write the whole next chapter, so, yeah, might take some time. **

**I am happy with all reviews (as long as they are nice and/or constructive, that is ;) ) **

**Ok once again sorry for talking so much. **

**Xxx Red**


	21. Dead

**Hello to all the awesome people who are still reading this!**

**So I think this chapter is... okay. And really cliché. Heheh that's a rhyme. Trailing off... So, anyway, I hope you like it. **

**It's a lot of André POV, which was strangely easy to write, seeing as André is one of my less favorite characters. Oh and I tried to do a tiny little bit of Tandre in here, hope it worked ;)**

**ENJOY!**

André

I knew we had to think of something, and fast. That man was still out there, and apparently wanted to kill us. But why? I sort of kept watch as Tori and Beck bent over Jade, to make sure we wouldn't be surprised with another attack. It was really dark, and in all the shadows it was hard to see exactly where the rocks had come from. Once I thought I saw something move, but seconds later I saw a bird fly up, so that's probably what it was.

When nothing happened for about five minutes I decided to go look if he was still there. I'm not the bravest guy in the world, I know, but I knew someone had to. Beck, Jade and Tori were otherwise occupied, and Robbie and Cat... well, you know, so I knew I'd have to be the one to take the lead.

"Where are you going?" Cat asked nervously as I walked towards the place Robbie had seen our attacker before. I gestured she had to be quiet, and continued, her terrified eyes following me sharply, as were Robbie's.

As silent and fast as I could I stole through the darkness, expecting a rock against my head any second, and not exactly having a plan.

Behind us, further land inwards, the mountain got higher. That was where some sort of road lead further upwards. I was pretty sure that's where Charles (or whoever it was) was.

I stayed as close as I could to the uprising stone wall while I followed the path up the mountain, looking to both sides for any sign of life. I turned around once, to see the others disappear behind the stone walls.

On my right side there was a cliff, though not as steep as the one I just left. If it hadn't been so dark I'd probably have been able to see the path Beck and I took the last time we were here. On my left the mountain went almost straight up, and after some time I had only a very small bit to walk on.

I continued anyway, hoping I'd find him soon. Or not, because seriously, I had no idea what to do if I did find him.

I'd already been walking for five minutes, and there was still no sign of the guy. I was starting to wonder if I'd passed him without noticing, when I heard a sound of falling rock on my left.

I looked up to find something moving in the shadows, just a little bit above my head. Instinctively I threw myself forwards onto the ground, just in time to prevent a pretty big boulder from crushing me.

I looked up, startled and a bit dazzled, even though I had pretty much been expecting something like this. A pale face stared at me from the darkness. Apparently there was some kind of cave.

"Come here!" I ordered firmly. I was calmer than you'd expect me to be, although I wouldn't say I was 'relaxed'.

The man, who I now indeed recognized as the guy who had attacked us weeks before, scrambled back into his cave. Impulsively I picked up a rock, not too big, and threw it at the place he'd just been. Not hard enough to hurt him, but enough to show him I meant it.

I heard a growl, and the man's head appeared again.

"Go away," he rasped. He sounded even worse than before, if that was possible.

"No, now get your ass down here and tell me why you're trying to kill us," I demanded, surprised at how confident that sounded. I picked up another rock, ready to attack him at any suspicious movement.

"No, don't," he creaked. He climbed out of his cave, and dropped himself onto the ground next to me. I backed away, afraid he might try to hurt me. I remembered the depth behind me just in time, and kept my balance, sighing in relief.

The man didn't try to attack me. He gave me a rather lost and crestfallen impression, while before he'd just seemed... well, crazy.

"Hold your hands up," I instructed. He showed me his hands. His nails were long and dirty, and both his hands were red and full of scratches. In his one hand he held some kind of rope, which I later recognized as a sling (the kind you use to throw rocks with, of course) and in the other a rock.

"All right, now give that to me." He did as I said, not once looking me in the eye.

"Okay, now sit down, hands up." Again he obeyed without a word. This was too easy!

"Why were you trying to hurt us?" I asked curiously. He looked straight at me, with more hate in his eyes than I'd ever seen in anyone's. Seriously, even Jade couldn't match it.

"You killed Lion," he spit. I was a little confused.

"I thought he was a cheetah?" I wondered out loud.

"Lion is cheetah." Ehm... right.

"What makes you think we killed him?" Again that hateful look.

"He went after you. He never came back."

"Well that doesn't mean we killed him!" I defended. Unbelievable I was actually having a discussion with someone who tried to kill my friends!

"Yes. I found him, rock in his head. Only man can." His short sentences and raw voice made me nervous, for some reason. And his words even more.

"You mean he was killed by someone else?" How was that possible? There were more people on this island?

"No. You did," he growled. I shook my head.

"We didn't. We never saw him again, after you tried to hurt my friends." The last part was meant as an insult, but the man called Charles only grinned.

"Your friend dead?" I stared at him.

"Jade? No. No, she's alive." His grin disappeared, making place for a confused look.

"Not possible. Anne..." I noticed he had tears in his eyes, and I felt something close to sympathy for him. Then I remembered he'd just asked if Jade had died with a big smile on his face, and the feeling disappeared.

"Yeah, she died, I know. But Jade didn't. Now..." I was quiet, not entirely sure what to do. There were tons of questions I wanted to ask, about him, his life, the island, but I was still afraid of him. I wanted to make one thing sure, though.

"Are you Charles?" I asked. He nodded, still a sad look on his face. I decided I should take him back to my friends, so we could think of a way to solve all this.

"Put your hands on your head and walk in front of me," I instructed. He did as I said. Unbelievable, seeing as the only thing I had to protect myself or attack him with was a rock.

We walked all the way back to my friends, and he didn't try to escape in any way. Really, what did he think I could do?

Tori

I looked up to find Cat and Robbie huddled together against the tree. André was gone.

"Where's André?" I asked. Robbie vaguely motioned towards the path that led up the mountain.

"He went to look for Charles." What?

"What do you mean, he went after Charles?" Robbie shrugged, apparently too busy calming Cat.

I turned around to face Beck and Jade, who were ALSO huddled together, much like Robbie and Cat, except that Robbie and Cat didn't look like they were trying to swallow each other.

"Guys?" Jade looked up, gave me that annoyed expression that said 'don't you know there's nothing more important than me and Beck making out' and then went back to doing so.

"Guys!" I repeated, a bit louder. They both looked up, Jade sighing irritatedly, as if it was a great sacrifice.

"André is gone." That got their attention.

"What? Where'd he go?" Beck asked, and just like Robbie all I could do was shrug.

"Robbie said he went after Charles," I told them. Beck got up, careful not to hurt Jade's shoulder. I saw her face contort in pain anyway when she got up too, but at that moment I was more worried about André.

"We have to find him," I insisted. Beck nodded.

"Why would he go after him alone anyway? What does he-" At that moment we heard someone yell. Not out of pain, but to tell us where he was.

I ran towards the sound, but stopped when I saw our attacker walk towards me. I backed away, and he grinned.

"André?" I whispered. Then I saw him, behind Charles, smiling reassuringly.

"Okay, now go over there, and sit down next to Beck and Jade," he instructed, pointing at our friends. For a second I thought he was talking to me, but I soon realized he was talking to Charles. Who did as he said.

I looked at André in astonishment. He just shrugged and smiled.

"Don't ever do that again, I was worried," I scolded, like I was talking to a child. As soon as I realized that I laughed, and hugged him, glad nothing bad had happened to him.

He hugged me back, and we stood like that for a while, until I looked up and we both awkwardly backed away. I turned around, to prevent André from seeing my red cheeks, just in time to see Charles make a very suspicious movement.

He reached for something in his pocket, something that blinked in the moonlight when he pulled it out...

Jade

I looked at the apparently captured man that sat down next to us.

"Clearly André knows how to handle things," Beck mumbled, just as astonished as me. I looked at Tori and André, who were hard to see in the shadows. I wondered what was taking them so long. Not that I really cared.

Suddenly someone screamed: "Watch out!"

Instinctively I pointed my scissors, which I was still holding, up in Charles' direction, since he was the only nearby threat as far as I knew. It turned out to be a good decision; he attacked me, swinging the knife that had already caused me so much trouble just a few inches in front of my nose.

I was holding my scissors with both hands, although my shoulder felt like someone was cutting it off. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the pain. I felt the crash when he bumped into my hands. I screamed in pain, and someone else did too. My eyes flew open, and widened at what I saw.

My scissors, which I had raised purely as a defense, had cut deep into the man's chest. He slowly fell onto his knees, looking at his wound in astonishment. He would have pulled me with him, if Beck hadn't grabbed my hands and got my cramped fingers to let go of the shiny metal scissors.

I was frozen in place, staring at what my simple defense mechanism had done. This man was dying! Charles looked up at me, and I expected to see anger and hate in his eyes. Instead there was a strange peace, and even some happiness. He actually looked grateful.

I heard his breathing get slower, more difficult. Then he fell to the side. I could just make out his last words: "Goodbye, Anne." Then he stopped moving. He was gone.

**PampamPAAAAAAM! Charles is dead. But don't worry, they might just run into a whole new threat! Which I haven't made up yet. So I'm still open for ideas!**

**Thank you, amaaaaazing reviewers! I love you all so much (well, not really, but I AM very grateful) Every single review makes me wanna dance. Which might be bad 'cause I'm not a great dancer. Anyway, I love reviews (hint, hint) :P**

**By the way, what's up with pie? Am I missing something? o_O Heheh I do love pie... XD**

**Next chap will be up ASAP, as always :)**

**Xxx Red**


	22. He's dead

**Omg I'm so sorry! This took, like, AGES! No, actually just a week. But still, that's waaaaay too long! Seriously guys, I'm gonna try to update sooner. But my f* - ahem, super awesome amazing nice fun school seems to feel obliged to make me feel stressed and take away all my inspiration. My brain feels dead... **

**Luckily I still managed to get this written. And I'm trying to get to some less depressing chapters, 'cause writing this just made me feel sad. And yeah, there's gonna be Cabbie and Tandré, unless you all beg me not to. I also want to write more about Trina, but I don't know if you guys would like that? (I have come to realize she's one of my favorite characters :D) **

**Thanks to all reviewers, and readers, and people who hate school as much as I do. No, I don't know why I just thanked that last cathegory... *_* LOL!**

**Oh, I just can't start a chapter without talking too much... Sorry XD You can start reading now :)**

Jade

I didn't move when the others walked up to us. I didn't move when André felt the man's pulse and shook his head, I didn't move when Beck hugged me, and I still didn't move when he tried to pull me with him, away from the dead body. The man I had just killed.

No one spoke, not even Cat. I didn't look up to see their faces, I didn't want to know. I just stared down, at the man who had once been the leader of a group of survivors. The man who was now dead.

Beck, still holding my hands, tried to pull me with him again. I let him this time. I didn't take my eyes of the body, though. Beck hugged me again, and I still didn't look away. I couldn't.

Someone said something, but I ignored it. My mind was strangely empty; I don't think I could have spoken if I'd wanted to. Beck shook my shoulder, but I ignored him. _He's dead_, it echoed through my mind. _He's dead, he's dead, he's dead... _

Something blocked my view. I didn't move, silently willing it to go away, whatever it was. It didn't matter. _He's dead... _There was no emotion with those words, no realization of what they meant. I vaguely heard people talk, but they seemed far away...

Suddenly something cold splashed into my face. I coughed, trying to get the water out of my airway, and blinked, snapping back into reality. Tori stood in front of me, a water bottle in her hand. She looked at me worriedly.

"Sorry..." she mumbled.

"Jadey, are you okay?" Cat came into my sight, she looked just as worried as Tori, if not more. I opened my mouth to tell her I was fine, but found myself gasping for air instead. Wasn't there supposed to be oxygen in there somewhere?

"She's hyperventilating," Tori said, slightly panicked. Somehow I found the time to realize how incredibly stupid it was to point that out when it was so obvious.

"Jade, calm down," a reassuring voice said. I tried to regain control over my breathing, but it was like there wasn't enough air.

"Jade, look at me." Beck's face appeared in front of me. He looked at me firmly.

"Just calm down, don't worry, it's okay." I concentrated on breathing slowly, but it still took me a few minutes to fully calm down. I looked up. Everyone looked worried.

"Are you okay?" Cat repeated. I nodded blankly.

"What happened?" André asked, quickly glancing at the dead body that was still on the ground.

"He's dead," was my only reaction.

Tori

I could hardly see what happened. But the result was clear enough. For a few seconds we all just stared at the scene, before Beck realized the dead weight was going to make Jade fall over. I walked closer, and André followed me. He felt the dead man's pulse, but it was no use; he was dead.

None of us talked. We all avoided looking at each other, too. Sure, we'd all killed animals before, as they were necessary for food, but this was obviously different.

"Jadey?" Cat finally disturbed the silence in a very small voice. She was holding on to Robbie like she'd drown if she didn't. I looked at Jade, who was standing unnaturally still, her hands still slightly stretched out in front of her, although she wasn't holding the scissors anymore. Beck was shaking her shoulder and repeating her name, but she didn't seem to give a reaction.

The word _shock_ echoed through my mind. In an impulse I picked up a half-full water bottle, walked towards her and splashed it in her face. Any other time that would have resulted in my death. Now it just resulted in a very wet Jade. At least she reacted...

"Sorry," I softly said. She looked at me with a slightly shocked expression. I wasn't sure if it was because of the water, or the fact that she'd just... you know. Killed someone.

"Jadey, are you okay?" Cat had let go of Robbie and ran towards us. Jade looked like she was going to say something, but she didn't.

"She's hyperventilating," I realized after a few seconds. Everybody gave me a look that said 'duh!'. I think even Jade raised an eyebrow before gasping for air again. I had no idea what to do, to be honest.

Luckily Beck did, and I quickly moved to give them some space, pulling Cat with me.

"Come on, Cat, she's gonna be fine," I assured the girl, who looked terrified. We watched from a distance as Beck slowly managed to calm his girlfriend.

Jade and I had never been the best of friends, that's not a secret. But I still felt bad for her, as she was clearly not having it easy right now. And she had saved Cat, which made me respect her a lot more. Maybe she wasn't as heartless as I thought...

Beck

Once I had managed to calm Jade down a little, we all were quiet again. No one really knew what to say. Everybody looked guilty, or worried, or shocked, or all three. It's not every day you see someone die. Especially not by the hands of one of your friends...

"We should bury him," Cat quite smartly pointed out. I nodded, although I wasn't looking forward to moving the body.

"We could cover him with rocks," Tori suggested, apparently having the same thought. André and I went to search for some that were big enough. All of us were needed to get them back to where Charles was. Although I don't thing Cat helped that much, since she seemed to be doing something else.

When we had completely covered the body (which took us about fifteen minutes), Cat put something on top of the pile. I was surprised to see it was a garland.

"Where'd you get that?" Tori asked, and Cat vaguely gestured towards where we'd just come from.

"I made it," she clarified.

Someone tugged at my hand; apparently Jade didn't want to stay here any longer. I was about to say we should, indeed, go, when Robbie coughed.

"One of us should say something," he stated. Cat immediately asked if she could.

"Fine, just hurry," Jade growled.

"Kay. Ehm, Charles, I'm really sorry that you died," Cat started. She sniffled a bit; apparently this whole thing made her emotional.

"I'm sure Jade didn't mean to kill you..." I felt Jade's hand stiffen in my own. Meanwhile Cat broke to tears, and Robbie patted her head in a clumsy attempt to comfort her.

"We should go," I said, and Tori and André nodded. Cat, however, shook her head wildly.

"No, someone has to finish the burial!" Jade looked like she was going to shred someone to tears very soon, so I motioned for Tori to do something. For a moment she gave me that look that said "why are you looking at me?", but luckily she noticed Jade's murderous expression and turned around to the pile of stones.

"Ehm, like Cat said, we're really sorry you died and we'll tell your story to everyone once we get off this island. Amen." she quickly said. That seemed to be enough for Cat, as she stopped crying and vaguely smiled at Tori.

"Now let's go," André almost cried out. This place was making everyone nervous. Too bad; it had been such a beautiful place. I remembered thinking I wanted to take Jade there. Now I was pretty sure she (any one of us) would ever go there again.

We decided to go land inwards, as the other road ended at a cliff. It would be way too dangerous to go there while it was this dark, even if Jade wouldn't have been injured. So we went up the mountain, until we found a pretty much sheltered place between the rocks.

It was almost a cave, but it was more like the mountain had worn down so that there was rock above us as well as to our left, right and back. As it was already way past midnight, we decided to stay there to get some sleep.

We immediately found out another negative side of our not really thought-out plan: the ground was hard as stone (because it actually WAS stone, duh), making it pretty difficult to fall asleep. Also we didn't want to be unprotected, so someone had to take watch.

I offered to go, since I was probably the only one not completely freaked out by everything that had just happened. Not that I didn't care; I just knew I had to stay strong now, and take the lead, or we'd all end up as cheetah bait. Which I wouldn't really be happy with.

Jade wanted to stay watch with me. She said her shoulder hurt to much to fall asleep anyway, but I could see she was tired. We all were, mentally and physically. So I told her to just try and get some sleep.

Everybody huddled together a bit, and I cursed myself for not bringing any wood to build a fire with.

Everybody fell asleep sooner than you might expect on a cold, hard floor. I smiled when I saw Cat move in her sleep, putting her head on Robbie's chest and her feet almost in Tori's face. André had an arm around the brunette, which made me smile even wider. Maybe this island would bring something good after all.

Jade was lying curled up next to me, having fallen asleep despite her shoulder. I was almost glad I didn't have to sleep here; I was sure everyone would have terrible muscle ache tomorrow. I stared into the dark, knowing that it would be a long night.

**Remember: any ideas/constructive criticism/compliments :p are more than welcome! But I guess all my "colleague writers" already know that. Whatever :D**

**Xxx Red**


	23. I know

**Heey people :D**

**I'm in a good mood 'cause I managed to write this so quickly. I just hope that doesn't mean it's bad... I kinda liked it, but you'll see :D**

**Karla, again, thanks sooo much! You are, like, the best reviewer EVERRR! I read your reviews over and over and over, they make me so happy! And yeah, you can call me Red (although that's not my name, but my parents won't let me put my real name on here so... XD) Thank you, thank you, thank you for being so sweet and awesome!**

**Thanks to all other reviewers too, you guys are my inspiration for this story! I seriously can't thank you enough :D**

**Get ready for some Bade, and Cade friendship :)**

Beck

Sitting and waiting. Waiting and sitting. Totally nothing to do except for staring into the dark nothingness; the little light the moon gave was hardly enough to see my friends. I swear, it's the most boring and mind killing thing there is. Within an hour I started to wonder why I hadn't asked for someone else to take over after some time.

I considered waking one of them. One look at my sleeping friends made me change my mind, though. They all looked completely exhausted, even in their sleep. I didn't even know that was possible. Which left me alone with my thoughts. It wasn't the first time; I was almost getting used to it.

When I was afraid I'd fall asleep if I wouldn't do something I got up, and walked around a bit. When I returned Jade was awake, and she looked at me reproachfully.

"Where were you?" she asked, pretty much demanding an answer.

"Just stretching my legs," I innocently replied. She gave me that threatening glare that made most guys pee but had never scared me.

"Can't I go for a walk?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You can, when you tell me where you're going." I chuckled.

"Really? What could happen?" Okay, I could actually think of a lot of things that could happen. Which was probably why she looked at me disbelievingly.

"You could be eaten by a cheetah, or fall off a cliff, or drown in the ocean-"

"Why would I go to the ocean?" Again that glare. She should know by now that it wasn't of any use.

"Don't ask ME why people go to the ocean, I never do!" I sighed and sat down next to her, knowing I wouldn't win this discussion anyway. Mostly because Jade was way too stubborn to ever give up. She got that slightly amused smirk on her face that she always had when she'd won a discussion. Or when she'd embarrassed someone (especially Tori) somehow.

I gave her a quick peck on the lips, turning it into a smile. She leaned her head against my shoulder; apparently she had forgiven me for whatever it was exactly I'd done wrong. I quickly glanced over my shoulder, to find my friends still sound asleep.

"So, how are you liking this vacation so far?" I softly asked. We hadn't actually talked much about that at all. She chuckled dryly.

"Great. Especially with a guy trying to kill me and all."

"At least he won't do that again," I said, trying to be optimistic. Not realizing that might not be the best thing to say right now. She looked away, and I felt her body tense.

"Jade, I didn't-" "What?" She dangerously raised her voice.

"You think I did it on purpose? You think I wanted him to die, so he couldn't hurt me anymore? 'Cause I didn't!" She looked back at me, a mixture of anger and guilt on her face.

"I didn't mean to..." Her voice broke, but she didn't cry. I quickly pulled her into a hug.

"I know," I whispered. She pulled back, and for a moment I was afraid she was mad at me. But then she kissed me, which soon turned into a heavy make out session, and I knew she'd be fine. WE'd be fine.

Jade

I was practically lying on top of Beck, his arm around me and my head on his chest, when I woke up the second time. He was asleep, which was strange, seeing as he was supposed to keep watch. Guess he must have been tired too.

I sat up, careful not to wake him. The others (except for Beck, of course) were already awake. I gave Tori a threatening glare when I caught her staring at us, causing her to quickly look away.

Beck stirred, and I looked down at him. His eyes flew open, giving him a rather shocked expression. I grinned.

"Hey," I greeted him.

"Hey." He looked around.

"It's morning. Did I fall asleep?"

"Yeah." It was too early for me to be sarcastic. Lucky him. Suddenly my stomach rumbled, and I turned around.

"I need food," I yelled at the closest-by person. Which turned out to be Robbie.

"André's getting some right now," he nervously said. Like I was going to hurt him.

"Relax, I don't even have my scissors," I said with an evil grin. I have to admit, I was kind of hurt that he didn't trust me. Not that I could really blame him, but whatever.

André returned with some mango's and coconuts (how original... okay, forget the "too early for sarcasm"), and we ate our breakfast in silence. It's moments like that when you miss the usual city noises. People always complain about noisy phone conversations and all; but right now I'd have given a lot for that kind of distraction. Especially because I was the reason for the silence, and their not-so-subtle staring was making me nervous...

"So, are we going further land inwards, or do we return to the beach?" Beck suddenly asked. Trust him to come up with a totally different subject. He's good at that. Our so-called friends finally looked away, slightly shameful when they realized they had been staring. Except for Cat, who just had that vague smile on her face that made me wonder if she was thinking anything at all.

"I think we should try to get back to the beach," André stated. "Otherwise we might get lost." Tori agreed with him (of course she did), and so did said: "Yay I love beaches," which I suppose was a yes.

I just shrugged. I really couldn't care less, as long as we didn't have to go back the way we came.

"All right, let's get going!" Beck said falsely optimistic, when the conversation fell silent again. We both got up, and I started to follow the road, not waiting for the others. My mood had just reached the ground level.

Cat

Everybody was so quiet, I thought we must be playing some kind of game in which you weren't allowed to talk. So when Beck said something, I smiled, because he lost. And then the others talked too, so I thought I might just as well start talking again.

And I really wanted to go to the beach, because I love beaches, so I said: "Yay I love beaches." And Jade didn't say anything, so she won the game.

And then everybody was silent again. But no one said we were playing the game again, and then Beck talked AGAIN, and I knew I was missing something. I tried to think of thins I might have missed, but that's really difficult because I had no idea in what direction I had to think. And then Jade walked away, because Beck had said we had to go, and I was happy again because I remembered we were going to the beach, and we all followed her, but she walked really really fast.

And she didn't wait for us or look back at us even once, which made me think she was mad at us, so I ran up to her to ask what we'd done.

"Jadey?" I said when I finally reached her. That took some time because she was pretty far ahead of us already, even though we'd only been walking for a little while. She didn't react, so she must not have heard me.

"Jadey?" I repeated, a little louder. She didn't hear me again.

"JADEY!" I screamed. She stopped walking, and turned around, and looked really angry.

"What?" she yelled at me. I frowned.

"Are you mad?" She just looked at me like she was going to cut me with her scissors, which really scared me, and I didn't really understand why she was mad at me either. But I remembered Beck still had her scissors, and I wasn't so afraid anymore.

"Did we do something wrong?" I softly asked. Her expression softened a really little bit.

"No, don't worry about it." She wanted to start walking again, but I stopped her, because I still wanted to know why she was angry.

"What, Cat?" she sighed. I giggled, because that almost rhymed.

"I wanna know why you're mad!" She frowned.

"I'm not mad." I giggled again.

"Riiiight." She groaned.

"Just go talk to Tori or something!"

"No, I wanna know why you're mad," I persisted. She tried to walk away, but I grabbed her arm. She didn't like that, but I really, really wanted her to tell me what was wrong.

Jade

Ugh, where were the others now that I needed them? Cat kept insisting I told her why I was mad. Seriously, what was I supposed to say? Yeah, I'm mad 'cause I accidentally killed someone yesterday, and now everyone looks at me like I'm some kind of psycho. That'd work out well...

"Don't touch me," I coldly said when she grabbed my arm. She didn't let go.

"Please tell me?" she pleaded. "No." "So you ARE mad." "No!" I looked behind me to see if the others were coming yet; I really needed some saving right now. I looked back at Cat, who was still holding on to my arm. She actually looked worried.

It's difficult to understand Cat. She's innocent, almost like a child, but she's not stupid. She's sweet, crazy and naive, but also really thoughtful and caring when she has to be. Sometimes I wish I could more like her, although I wouldn't ever tell anyone that. And usually I just wish she'd fall into a hole full of hungry crocodiles, just to make her stop talking. Like now.

"Tell me," she once again demanded, giving me her puppy look.

"Pleeeeeease?" I groaned, and tried to walk away again. Which was pretty difficult, since she was still clinging to my arm.

"Waaaait!" she cried out, putting her full weight (which wasn't that much, but still) into stopping me from walking. Causing us both to fall onto the ground.

"Cat!" I screamed. She looked at me, guilty but determined.

"I want you to tell me why you're mad!"

"Because someone died and everybody's acting like it's my fault!" I screamed. Why is it that girl always gets what she wants? She looked at me with a frown.

"But that was an accident." I got up, pointlessly brushing dust from my already dirty clothes.

"Don't tell me, tell them," I mumbled, not entirely happy with the fact that I'd just given in to her whining, and started to walk again. Against better judgment hoping she wouldn't follow me. She did, of course.

"I don't think it's your fault," she told me. I laughed sarcastically.

"You wouldn't think it was my fault, even if I'd killed him in front of you." Which I kind of did. And she actually HAD said it was my fault, but apparently she'd changed her mind.

"That's so hurtful!" she said, but clearly it wasn't enough to make her go away.

"But I don't think the others think it's your fault either."

"No, I'm sure that's why they look at me like I'm gonna stab them with my scissors. Which I don't even HAVE!"

"I think they're just worried about you." I frowned, trying to find a possible reason for that.

"Why would they be worried about me?" I asked when I couldn't come up with anything. She shrugged.

"'Cause so much bad stuff happened to you, and you hardly talk to us about it."

Before I could respond the others finally reached us.

"Where were you?" I asked, slightly annoyed. Beck smiled innocently, which only made me more suspicious.

"Robbie found this plant he saw in one of his books, and he had to dig it out." I didn't tell him the ground here was to hard to dig anything out, because it was obvious we all knew it was a lie. Except for Cat, maybe. I also didn't ask why he was lying, because I was pretty sure it was because he wanted me and Cat to talk, which made me wonder if he'd asked her to do so. I'd just confront him later.

Instead I observed the others, trying to figure out if Cat was right. I wasn't too sure about Robbie, but for the others, it just might be true.

**Woohoo, Jade's loved! Stay tuned for another episode- I mean chapter- of TOGETHER ALONE! LOL Oh wait, I'm not supposed to laugh about my own jokes. Whatever :P**

**Don't forget to review ;) 'Cause I love those even more than pie XD**

**Xxx Red**


	24. The lake

**This took ages again, I'm so terribly sorry! I swear I'll try to update more often!**

**OMG I have one HUNDRED reviews! I can't believe it! You all deserve cupcakes. As soon as they found an online cupcake mail system I'll send one to all of you :D And an extra special thank you to Karla, because of your AMAZING reviews and for being my 100th reviewer! Extra cupcake for you :P**

**This is mostly in third person, not completely sure why, but... whatever. XD**

**Cabbie's coming guys, I really hope you like it! :D**

**Enjoy :)**

André

After our small break (which Beck pretty much forced upon us stating that the girls needed some alone time. For some reason I could hardly imagine Cat coming back from that undamaged, but I decided not to protest) we continued our walk. We were all quiet (not the first time), even though we all hated the silence. At least I did.

We found the girls, and I was glad to see Cat still alive. Just a matter of speech, of course, I know Jade wouldn't really try to kill her. I wasn't surprised when Beck didn't give the real reason why we hadn't followed immediately, and I was glad when she didn't seem to look for another reason than Robbie's plant. She looked at me a bit strange, though, as if she was searching for something. At Tori and Robbie, too. Subtly, but clear enough if you paid attention. She looked away after a while, leaving me (and maybe the others, if they noticed) to wonder what she'd been looking for.

We continued land inwards. The further we walked, the less high the rock walls rose up to our sides. There started to be more green, too. Then, about an hour after our break, we couldn't continue straight forward anymore: our path ended at a lake.

Third person

They all stared at the enormous lake beneath them. It was really the most wonderful place they had ever seen. Almost exactly in the middle was a small island, too far away to see details. On the other side they saw the green of a forest (probably still the same one), which stretched out all along the sides of the lake, except for where a small stream came out, and the part they were standing on: a small cliff, close enough to the water to see their own reflections.

It was the first time they saw themselves in more than three weeks, and they were all pretty much shocked by what they saw.

"My hair's turning brown again," Cat remarked, disappointed.

"Yeah, I gotta call you little brown from now on," André replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the girl screeched, reminding them all of "old times". Their reflections, on the other hand, hardly reminded them of themselves at all.

Despite the fact that their clothes where torn and dirty (the boys weren't even wearing shirts anymore; they were just warm and annoying), their skin color was darker than they remembered due to the sun; their hair was a mess; and they all looked pretty much exhausted.

"We look terrible," Tori truthfully remarked. The others nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, at least for you it doesn't make a difference," Jade teased. It wasn't really meant as an insult. It might have been once, but things had changed, obviously. Tori childishly sticked out her tongue at her, not in the least offended.

"Hey, do you think we can dive in from here?" Robbie wondered, peering down over the edge. Tori raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you didn't like heights?" she questioned. He just shrugged.

"I've got to get over that sometime," he replied, half confident, half scared. André looked at the water.

"It looks deep, but we shouldn't take any risks. You don't want to dive in, only to find out it's just a few inches." The thought of that was indeed not very pleasant.

"Why don't Cat, Tori and I try to find a way down, so we can look how deep it is?" Jade quickly suggested. She didn't want to dive anyway; she also wasn't a big fan of heights. But she wasn't going to tell them that.

"Sure," Cat agreed, and so did the others.

There was a small path leading down, to the right of where they were standing. The three girls followed it down, until they reached what was probably ground level.

"It's so beautiful," Cat said when she noticed the small waterfall falling down from somewhere high above them.

"Yeah, pretty," Jade dryly said, before walking to the side of the lake.

"You think it's deep enough?" Tori asked. She was surprised by the clearness of the water. She could easily see the bottom here, but it was hard to say if it was deep enough where the boys wanted to dive.

"Only one way to find out," Jade said with a small smile. Tori looked at her suspiciously.

"Wha- aaaah!" Before she knew it she was being pushed into the lake. She spluttered, and tried to get up, but Jade mercilessly pushed her back in.

"Go see how deep it is," she said, smiling triumphantly when Tori sighed and turned around. Her smile disappeared when she felt a strong tug on her arm, and Tori pulled her with her into the water.

"Tori!" she screamed when the cold water touched her skin. Tori smiled innocently.

"What?" Suddenly they heard a splash, and Cat appeared next to them.

"Yay, pool party!" Jade and Tori stared at her blankly for a while. She looked back innocently. Then, at the exact same moment, all three of them started to laugh.

"We're having a pool party on a deserted island," Tori cried out, seeing the irony of it all.

"Yeah, now all we need is music, and it's just like normal," Jade laughed. Cat giggled, happy to see her friend in a better mood.

"Ask the boys to come and sing us a song!" They swum over to the cliff. The boys looked down on them, slightly confused at why they were in such a good mood.

"Can we dive?" Robbie asked. Tori breathed in deeply, and disappeared underwater. It took a while for her to resurface.

"I think so." She hardly even finished her sentence, and André splashed into the water, just missing Tori's head.

"André!" she cried out, slightly startled. He just laughed, and motioned for Beck and Robbie to follow him. Beck dived in, leaving Robbie alone at the cliff. He looked a bit pale, obviously reconsidering his idea.

"Come on, Rob, it's not that high," André yelled. Robbie took a small step forwards, and peered down at his friends.

"I- I think I'll just-" Then he somehow managed to lose his balance- something only Robbie could do- and fell down head forward. It looked in one word hilarious.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" His scream muted when he hit the surface, splashing water all over his friends. Beck and André quickly helped him resurface. He seemed to be fine, other than his frightened face.

"Tha- that was-"

"Oh, Robbie, you're so brave!" Cat giggled, and hugged him. The frightened expression disappeared, and made place for a wide grin.

"You really think so?" Cat nodded happily.

"Sure."

"You do know he-" Jade's comment was cut off when Tori put a hand over her mouth.

"Shhhhh," she whispered, smiling almost as wide as Robbie. Jade mumbled something, but kept silent. So did the boys, and they all watched as the two moved closer...

"Awh," Tori said, not for the first time ruining the moment. Cat and Robbie looked up, Robbie's cheeks had turned a deep red.

"I- thought you didn't like me?" he said questioningly. Cat shrugged lightly and smiled.

"Ugh, I'm gonna puke," Jade muttered, although she couldn't help smiling a little too. She'd know Cat liked Robbie for a long time, and that Robbie liked Cat was a well known fact. Although she didn't like Robbie much, she was still happy for her friend.

They sat down at the small pebble beach, and let their clothes dry in the sun. Luckily the girls all had their swimming suits on underneath their clothes already, and the boys were wearing swimming trunks, it had become normal, since they all randomly went swimming sometimes. They all just enjoyed the sun.

"This place is amazing," Tori sighed, lying down on her back.

"It's like a fairytale," Cat agreed, while leaning against Robbie's shoulder.

"Then can I not be the step-sister this time?" Tori asked, with a small smile towards Jade. Jade looked at her darkly.

"Don't ever speak of it," she threatened. Beck raised an eyebrow.

"May I ask what you're talking about?"

"Sure, a few weeks ago-" Tori started.

"NO!" Jade screamed, and both Tori and Cat giggled.

"You can be the fairy this time, kay?" Cat said.

"Sure, then you be the princess," Tori said, smiling at the little girl's excitement.

"Yeah, and Robbie's the brave prince who saves the day," Jade said sarcastically. Cat, however, put her hands around the curly haired boy.

"I think Robbie's really brave," she replied. Jade rolled her eyes.

"At least he did jump off. You didn't," Cat defended her new boyfriend (if that's what they were now). Jade raised an eyebrow.

"Neither did you." Cat giggled.

"Okay, wanna go dive?" Jade hesitated, conflicted. She didn't want to tell her friends she was afraid of heights, but she really didn't want to go either. Finally she decided she'd just have to put up with it. She'd manage; she'd done worse things.

"You comin' Vega?" she said with a look at the brunette. Tori nodded and got up, and the three girls walked up to the cliff. It really wasn't that high, but still... Down below she saw the boys, who were waiting for them in the water.

"I'll go first," Cat chirped, before diving into the cold water. Tori and Jade both hesitated.

"You wanna go?" Tori asked. This slightly reminded her of the time she had to fall for a movie. Which in turn reminded her of something else...

"Time for revenge," she mumbled. Jade turned her head.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing. Are you going, or what?" Jade walked over to the edge, and looked down. Beck was smiling reassuringly; he knew she wasn't comfortable right now. The others just looked at her expectantly.

Suddenly two cold hands pushed her forward, and she tumbled down. She couldn't help screaming as she saw the water get closer. She braced herself for hitting the surface and closed her eyes, but before she hit she felt two arms catching her. She opened her eyes to see Beck's half amused, half worried face. She looked up at Tori, who smirked at her.

"You're ever so welcome," she said in Jade's own mock-Tori voice. She then graciously dived into the pool, gaining her an applause from both André and Robbie. When the brunette tried to resurface, Jade mercilessly pushed her back under. Tori managed to swim away, and gasped in the fresh air once she could.

"What was that for?" she cried out in offense. Jade raised an eyebrow.

"You just pushed me off a cliff." Tori shrugged, already smiling again.

"Just payback for when you pushed me off the stage."

"You wanted to fall off!"

"I didn't want you to push me!"

"We both know you wouldn't have done it without my help!"

"And you WERE gonna dive in without MY "help"?" The others, who watched the argument amused, had to refrain a laugh when Jade opened her mouth to make a remark, but apparently couldn't think of one. She blankly stared at the brunette for a while, before turning around and kissing Beck, as if that would somehow make up for her losing the discussion.

She looked at him reprovingly when not-so-subtly covered his laugh by coughing.

"Don't make fun of me!"

"I wasn't making fun of you," he quickly defended himself, trying to avoid another discussion.

"Yes you were!"

He sighed.

"Why don't we go over there, and dry up," he changed the subject, pulling her with him to the beach.

"Hey, you wanna go check out the island?" André asked Tori, who was in for the plan. Robbie and Cat decided to do some more "cliff jumping" (or actually Cat wanted to, and Robbie just watched since he was still scared, but didn't want to tell Cat), while Tori and André made their way to the small, dense island. It was pretty far, and it took them at least fifteen minutes before they reached the small sandy beach.

They sat down to rest for a while, and Tori waved at Cat, who was too busy diving to notice. After a few minutes they started to explore the island. It was really quite small, it took them only five minutes to walk all around it. They then entered the dense miniature forest that covered the middle.

Tori hardly set foot in it, or she felt a tug at her ankle. Seconds later she found herself hanging upside down, hanging by a rope that had somehow tied itself around her foot...

**Thanks for reading, please tell me what you thought of it. I don't mind you correcting my grammar either, by the way, 'cause I'm still learning :D **

**I'll update ASAP, but I can't promise anything. Especially with Easter coming up and everything :) Don't you just love Easter eggs? (or whatever they are called in English XD) Yeah, you do! Just admit it! ;D**

**Xxx Red**


	25. Traps

**I'm SO SORRY for making you wait so long! I've been so uninspired lately, and it took me like three weeks to write this. SORRY SORRY SORRY! I really tried to work on it, but I literally had to force myself to start every time, and it just wasn't working out... At least it's a long chapter :3**

**Thanks for all the AMAZING reviews, I love them! Now I feel extra bad for taking so long... Please forgive me! Q_Q I'll try not to do it again :)**

**I hope this isn't too much OOC :(**

Beck

Jade and I sat on the beach, and watched as Cat and Robbie had fun. It was warm, as always- I could hardly even remember the last time I'd been cold.

"I wonder where Tori and André are, that island can't be that big," I thought out loud. Jade frowned.

"Why do you care where Vega is?" Oh great, that discussion again.

"Because Tori is our friend. And they've been gone for like twenty minutes already; maybe we should go see if something happened." When Jade didn't react or made any attempt to act like she cared, I sighed and got up.

"Are you coming?" She rolled her eyes, but got up too. I told Robbie where we were going, and then we swum towards the small island.

Tori

"Get me down!" I screamed at André, who was looking up at me with a perplexed look on his face. I suppose it must have looked pretty ridiculous, so I can't totally blame him. But still, this wasn't the most comfortable position.

I still didn't know what happened. One moment I was walking, the next I felt a tug at my foot, and then a second later I was hanging upside down. I tried to get loose, but the rope (or I think that's what it was) had tied itself around my ankle pretty tightly. And considering the fact that I was dangling upside down, my failed attempts to escape must've looked... totally ridiculous.

André, who suddenly came into action after I yelled at him, tried to climb the tree (a pretty big palm tree) to which the rope-thing seemed to be attached somewhere. I couldn't see what he was doing, since I hadn't found out how to turn around yet. But judging from a loud groan, he failed.

"I don't have anything to cut it through anyway," he said, and I heard a slight chuckle as he watched me swing around in another attempt to turn around. He walked around me so I could look at him, and I gave him an angry look.

"Well, find something! You can't just expect me to keep hanging here! What happened, anyway?" He shrugged.

"Seems like someone set a trap." As soon as he realized what that meant he looked at me.

"You mean... there's more people here?" I asked, and he shrugged again.

"Now that I think of it, before he... passed away, Charles said that his cheetah had been killed by something... someone. He thought we did it, but since we didn't..." My eyes widened.

"We need to warn the others! What if they are still around?" I tried again to get down, without success. I looked down at the ground, not that far below me. I could almost touch it when I reached out my hand. Then I slowly looked up as I heard someone walk towards us. For a second I was afraid it was the person who set the trap, but then I saw a very surprised and confused Beck and a very amused Jade.

Great, just what I needed- someone to make this worse. She walked up to me, arms crossed and a cocky smile on her face.

"Why Vega, aren't you having fun?" she said, supposedly talking like me. Seriously, I don't talk like that! Which is what I told her. To which she, as usual, reacted with "whatever".

She moved her hand up, and for a split second I thought she was gonna punch me in the face. Such a stupid idea... I hope. I looked again, and noticed she was holding her scissors. She looked at the rope thoughtfully.

"Should work," she mumbled. Then she walked over to the tree. I finally managed to turn myself around, and watched her climb it without any difficulty, holding her scissors with one hand. And here I thought she was afraid of heights...

When she'd almost reached the top she looked down, one eyebrow raised.

"What? Never climbed a tree when you were little?" I stupidly shook my head, and she sighed.

"Of course you didn't." Then, without any warning, she reached out for the rope and started cutting through it.

"Thanks," I said. That was before the rope snapped and I landed flat on my back (no idea how I managed to do that). Believe me: that hurts! I heard Jade chuckle above me, and I looked up angrily.

"Not funny! What if I'd landed on my head?" She shrugged carelessly, and climbed down again, giving me that victorious smirk of hers.

Jade

Tori Vega, upside down, hanging from a tree. If I'd had my phone with me, her picture would have been all over the internet. Than again, if I'd had my phone with me PLUS internet, we would have been at home right now. I'd just have to do with the memory, then.

"Why Vega, aren't you having fun?"

And now Tori sais, 'I don't talk like that', I thought. Yup, she did.

"Whatever." I took out my scissors (yes, I always have those with me, and no, I'm not gonna tell you where), and looked at the rope holding her. I decided it shouldn't be too hard to cut through. I would, however, have to get up there to be able to reach it... I could do that. It wasn't that high. And I needed to show Vega I wasn't afraid of anything- she'd gotten way too close already.

So I climbed up the tree; something I had done a million times when I was little. It was way easier than I expected, and within a few seconds I was high enough to be able to reach the rope easily. I looked down at the others. Beck looked slightly worried, and I rolled my eyes. It's not like I haven't ever done anything more dangerous before.

Tori looked disbelieving, and I raised an eyebrow.

"What? Never climbed a tree when you were little?" Don't all kids do that? But of course not her. I sighed, and started cutting through the rope. It wasn't that thick, and within a few seconds it snapped. She actually thanked me before falling on the ground. I laughed when she looked up angrily.

"Not funny! What if I'd landed on my head?" I smiled and climbed down. Did she really think I cared? André helped Tori get up, and they both looked into the small forest on the island.

"What?" I asked, not really caring for the answer.

"Someone set a trap here," Tori answered. "Where'd that person go?"

André

I carefully looked around, searching for a sign of other traps. I had no idea what to look for, which didn't make it much easier.

"Maybe we should go back to Cat and Robbie," I suggested when I didn't find anything suspicious. Tori nodded, Beck shrugged, and Jade rolled her eyes.

"What, you think someone's here? We'd have seen him by now." She walked a few steps further into the forest. Nothing happened.

"See?" she said, turning around to us.

"Nothing happened!"

"Don't say that. Now something surely WILL happen!" I told her. Never mess with fate, that's what every single movie teaches you. She didn't seem to know that, because she turned around again and walked further. Beck followed her, raising an eyebrow at me and Tori. Tori looked at me uncomfortably, but did follow our friends. I sighed, and did the same, wondering why we were even doing this. It wasn't like there was anything there for us.

Nothing happened, and I was starting to believe that was the only trap on the island. Really like Tori to walk right into it. Then we reached a very small field, with a few meters next to us, on the edge of the forest, something that might very well once have been a shelter.

Now it looked more like a bunch of overgrown branches, but something in the way they were positioned made it look like they had been used. My first instinct was to stay far away from it, but of course Jade wanted to investigate. Had I been slightly relaxed before, now tension rose again.

Tori seemed scared; she waited for me before following our friends. I smiled reassuringly, and she gave me a weak smile back. The short moment was interrupted by a loud crack, followed by a shout, followed by a "thud!" Tori and I looked up to see what had happened, to find a startled Beck looking down at what seemed to be a large hole in the ground. Which most definitely hadn't been there before. We walked over, and looked at what had happened.

Apparently someone had made a pitfall here. It was round, quite deep, at least three meters, and about two meters in diameter. At the bottom, covered in sand, grass and branches, was Jade, looking up at us, furious and a bit startled.

"Are you okay?" Tori asked, being the nice girl she is.

"Do I look okay?" Jade retorted. I heard Beck chuckle next to me, and apparently so did Jade.

"Don't you laugh at me, I just fell down like three meters!" He immediately stopped laughing, although he was still clearly amused.

"How did you manage to fall in? I mean, how could you not notice this?" I asked. She looked at me, furious.

"It was covered with grass, how was I supposed to know?"

Jade

Great. Oh, this was just perfect. I was three meters down, covered in dirt, people above me were laughing, and I had no way of getting back up. Instead of helping they were making fun of me, so I started looking for a way out myself. The walls were too sandy to climb up, which meant the others would have to find a way to pull me up. I didn't like the position I was in, and I wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.

"Now find a way to get me out!" I demanded. Beck immediately sat down on his knees, and reached out his hand. Now I'm not small, but I can't reach something that's half a meter above me. So I wasn't even going to try.

"That's not gonna work, get something else." Vega sat down too, and tried the very same useless thing.

"Hold my hand," she said to Beck, who'd gotten up. He did, because of course he always listens to her. She reached out for me again, and if Beck would have let her go, she'd have fallen right into the hole. Of course he didn't let her go. Her hand got close enough for me to take it, and I looked at it sceptically, wondering if she'd be strong enough to pull me all the way up with just one hand, or if she'd let go halfway. Be it accidentally.

Well, it wasn't like I had much choice. I grabbed her hand, and she and Beck started to pull me out. She actually held – apparently she was stronger than I gave her credit for. I finally managed to grab the edge, which was awesome, since I could let go of Tori now.

I guess if Beck wouldn't have been holding her, I might have 'accidentally' pulled her into the hole. Then again, she was helping me, and I'd already dropped her once today (literally, that is).

I climbed up the last part, and got up. And realized I was covered in sand from head to toe. Great.

Beck

She got up and walked away without another word. Normally I'd let her cool off for a while, but on a small island apparently filled with traps, that might not be the best idea.

"I'll go after her," I sighed.

"Yeah, me and Tori'll just... go look around some more," André replied, not looking all that happy with that situation. I couldn't do anything about that now, though, and I followed my girlfriend back to the small beach.

"You okay?" I asked, and she spun around, apparently startled. She sent me an angry look.

"Just peachy!" I couldn't hide a chuckle when I saw how dirty she was. She didn't appreciate it.

"It's not funny!" she cried out. It kinda was, but I didn't say that out loud. Or maybe I did, because the next thing I knew was a very angry Jade throwing a hand full of sand over my head.

"Oh, this is a mature way to settle things," I muttered, before picking up some myself and throwing it right back at her.

Tori

I really, REALLY didn't want to stay here.

"Can't we just go get Robbie and Cat and continue walking around the island?" I asked. André shrugged.

"I guess we will, but we should really find out if there's anyone else here first. Although I don't think there is, don't worry." I nodded, and we both looked at the bunch of branches that looked like a shelter.

"Well, let's... investigate, then."

We were very careful as we walked towards it, to make sure we wouldn't set off another trap. We reached it without problems. We looked between the branches, but nothing there told us anything about who or what might have lived there.

"Should we look further?" I asked hesitantly. André shook his head.

"That'd just be dangerous. And I really don't think there's anyone here. At least not anymore." I nodded, and we made our way back to the edge of the island, where we hoped to find our friends.

We found Beck and Jade sitting on the beach, both covered in sand, Jade even more than before.

"Uh, hi?" I said, hoping we hadn't come too early.

"Hey, guys," Beck cheerfully replied, and both of them got up. I was still impressed by the way he could always calm Jade down so easily.

"So, let's go-" André started, but Jade interrupted him.

"Guys! Oh my god, guys, look!" She was looking up, and I followed her gaze. Far above us I saw what looked incredibly much like... a plane?

**OMG there's a plane flying over! They might be saved soon now. Or they might not. You'll see :D**

**I'll update ASAP. Worst case scenario will be about three weeks... like this time. Q_Q I'll do whatever I can to keep that from happening again! XD**

**Thanks so much for reading :D**

**Xxx Red**


	26. Rescued?

**Hey guys, sorry for not updating sooner. I'm a little (really a lot) uninspired lately. And I had my birthday, which delayed things a little ;)**

**Hope you like it :D**

Jade

No. No, no, no! A plane? NOW?

"We need to signal it!" Beck shouted.

"How?" I yelled back at him. We didn't have anything to make fire with; we'd left everything on the beach with Robbie and Cat.

"Your scissors! Use the reflection of the sun!" Tori made up. I immediately got them out, and tried frantically to catch a flash of sunlight. Believe me, it's difficult in a stressed situation like that. I couldn't believe there was a plane flying over NOW, after all the time we'd had a huge fire burning to signal one. The others, just as panicked as me, were yelling. As if they could hear us up there.

Later I had no idea if I actually managed to sent a flash up there. Neither did the others. I was the first one to realize how hopeless this was – even if the sun HAD reflected, what were the chances the pilot (or someone else on the plane) had seen it? And then even if they had, what were the chances of them reporting it? I sighed, defeated. The others calmed down too, looking rather hopeful.

"This could be it!" Tori said excitedly. "We could be saved now!"

"Don't get your hopes up, Vega," I replied. "They probably didn't even notice us." She looked disappointed.

"But... they must've seen us, right? They must've at least noticed the island, and they'll sent someone to check it out, and they'll come and find us, if we go back to the beach, and..." I put a hand on her shoulder, and she quieted, looking devastated. I actually felt bad for saying what I was about to say, but she had to understand...

"Tori, we probably won't be saved. At least not by this plane. If you keep hoping for that, you'll go totally crazy. I'm sorry, okay? There wasn't anything we could do." She shook her head disbelievingly, and looked at me with eyes full of hate and anger. Kind of scary, coming from her.

"No. No, they'll come. You'll see, they'll get us!" she said, and I think she really believed it at that moment. Then she ran off towards the water, swimming towards Cat and Robbie rapidly. André followed her, leaving me and Beck alone once again. I sighed, knowing Tori would just have to get over it sooner or later. Beck put his arm over me, and I rested my head against his shoulder for a while.

"You think they saw it?" I asked him. He thought for a while.

"No. I don't think so." Well, at least he was honest.

"Let's go back to the others," he said after a short silence. I nodded, and followed him back into the water.

Cat

Robbie and I were having tons of fun, me diving off the cliff and he watching and clapping and hugging me every time as if he thought I could just have died. I was so happy that he liked me! I totally lost track of time, and it seemed way to early when Tori and André returned. I'd just dived, and me and Robbie swum towards me.

"How was the island?" I asked excitedly, but Tori ignored me and sat down on the beach. I was really confused; had I upset her somehow? André smiled at me reassuringly, so I thought it was probably not something I had done. I noticed Beck and Jade weren't at the beach anymore. When I looked around I saw them swimming towards us. André followed Tori and sat down next to her, and I wanted to do the same, but Robbie stopped me.

"Leave them alone for a while, okay?" I wanted to say they already had been alone for a while, but he seemed a bit sad, so I gave him a hug instead. Beck and Jade reached us, and I let go of Robbie.

"Hey, guys! What's up with Tori?" I immediately asked. Beck looked at Robbie.

"Did you see the..." Robbie nodded, pointed at me and shook his head. I didn't get what he meant by that.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I yelled, thinking it might be some kind of insult I didn't know about.

"Nothing, Cat. Just that you didn't see the... something."

"What didn't I see?" Everybody looked a little nervous. "Did something bad happen?"

Robbie coughed. "Well, kinda. Not really bad bad, but sort of..."

"A plane flew over, Cat," Jade interrupted him. I was confused.

"That's good, right? Now we can go home!" I smiled excitedly, but the others' faces gave me an anxious feeling.

"Right?" I asked again, slightly less certain. Beck shook his head.

"We didn't have fire to signal it. They probably didn't notice us."

"But... they'll come back, won't they?" I loved the island, but I missed my parents and brother and friends. I looked at my friends, who all looked back with sad eyes, and at André, who was trying to calm down Tori, who seemed very upset.

"Well... I guess that's okay," I decided out loud. "And maybe more planes will fly over, if this one did. And then we can try to sign one." Robbie smiled, and put an arm over my shoulders.

"Of course. It might take a while, but we'll get out of here eventually." Beck and Jade nodded too, and I turned around again to look at Tori and André. She still seemed upset; I think she was even yelling at André, which I found really weird because Tori's always calm and happy and she never yells, only at Trina, and sometimes Jade.

"Is Tori okay?" I wondered. The others looked at her too. She looked back at us for a second, and she looked angry. I didn't know why. Did she blame us because we couldn't signal the plane? That wasn't our fault. Right?

André

"Tori, please!"

"No!" I couldn't remember her yelling at me ever before, so I knew she was really upset. I understood, until a certain point. It's not every day you see the one thing you want most in your whole life, to be so close, but be unable to get it.

"I know you're upset, but this isn't going to help."

"Well what if it does?" Her voice was full of venom. That wasn't entirely fair; none of us could have done any more than we did.

"Tori, you know Jade's right, don't you?"

"She's not! They must've seen us. She's lying!" I sighed.

"Try and think rationally, please! Besides, why would Jade lie to you about something like this? Don't you think she wants to go home herself, too? We all do. But we can't believe in something that won't happen." It hurt me to say that, because I truly wanted to believe in what Tori was saying. But I knew that in the end it would only hurt more.

"But it WILL happen. I mean, we sent a signal up, didn't we? And they must be paying extra attention, so there's a chance they saw it. Maybe they won't come today, but tomorrow, or the day after, or..." I heard the anger and wilfulness die away when she finally came to her senses. She looked at me remorsefully.

"I just want to go home." I smiled, and embraced her tightly.

"Believe me, I know how you feel."

"I know." She sounded sad and tired, and my heart ached for not being able to take her home.

The others were nearing, and I let go of Tori.

"You okay?" Beck asked. Both me and Tori nodded, and everybody clearly relaxed a bit. On everyone's faces I saw it, though. The same thing I saw on Tori's face, although hidden better: the knowledge we'd just missed our chance. There was a long, awkward silence. No one knew what to say now. What could we say? It was one of those things everybody knew but nobody wanted to say out loud, in fear of making it more real somehow.

"We should get back to the beach," Beck finally decided. None of us disagreed. This place, as beautiful as it was, wouldn't ever be a happy one for us, like the cliff wouldn't be. So we all followed him into the forest.

Cat was the first one to return to her happy self, as I'd already expected.

"I wanna swim in the ocean when we get there," she excitedly chirped.

"You already have, for hours," I replied, slightly surprised but also amused.

"Well now I wanna do it again." She looked around.

"Are we going the right way? I don't remember this." She clung to Robbie's hand, which was both sweet and really weird. Usually girls stayed as far away from him as possible.

"We have to walk around the mountains," Beck explained to her, "because we can't climb off that cliff."

The mood slowly lightened, and by the time we'd reached the shoreline Cat and Robbie were happily singing songs, and Tori had lost the defeated look. We'd all accepted that this plane wouldn't be our rescue.

"Ocean!" Cat yelled through the middle of her song, as soon as we saw the first sparkle of blue. She pulled Robbie with her towards it, and he followed her. I wasn't sure if that was because Cat was stronger than him or because he really wanted do go with her.

I noticed it was starting to get dark, which meant we'd have to sleep on the beach, or in the forest. Like when we'd just gotten here.

**As always, tell me what you think, any ideas etc. :)**

**And thanks for all the nice reviews, they still make my day :3**

**Xxx Red **


	27. The End

**This is it, guys. My last chapter. It's probably not as good as it should be, seeing as I'm just totally done with the series. I've tried my best, though. Thank you all for reading, especially those who have reviewed! You have really helped me go on with the story :D**

Beck

We set up a small camp (which actually was just a fire to scare off any wild animals, but we called it a camp to make it sound more fun) on the beach. We would have done it in the forest, but Cat said she wanted to be able to see the stars. And Cat has this thing with getting what she wants, so it was decided.

In fear of wild animals (Robbie was nice enough to inform us those aren't always afraid of fire) we decided one of us would stay up again. I offered to, but Jade wouldn't have it. And I WAS seriously tired. I mean, I'd been up for more than twenty-four hours already. After some time of bickering (we were all tired and nobody was looking forward to spending a whole night up) André, Tori and Robbie agreed to take shifts.

Cat wanted to help too, but none of us really trusted her to be able to pay enough attention. Or stay awake at all. Cat is an easily distracted person.

Despite our exhaustion, we couldn't sleep. It wasn't like we were scared, and the ground was more comfortable than the night before. It was more like the place reminded us of our first nights here. Add that to the missed plane, and we were all in a slightly melancholic mood.

"I can't sleep," Cat spoke all our thoughts. In the light of the fire, everyone looked pale and kind of scared.

"I keep thinking we'll miss another plane," Tori sighed. I felt Jade, who was lying close next to me, tense up the slightest bit, making me wonder if she blamed herself for not signaling the plane. Which would be totally ridiculous.

"If a plane flies over, they'll see the fire. And if they don't, there's nothing more we can do anyway," I pointed out. No matter how true that was, I completely understood how she felt. Judging by their expressions, so did the others.

I didn't feel like talking. Despite all the happenings, the place had something peaceful. A deep silence soon fell over us, as we all stared into the dark. I looked up, and found the sky as clear as ever. Stars shimmered all over, and just for a second I could imagine everything was fine. Then that amazing moment was interrupted by a noise growing louder and louder. A noise I didn't think I'd hear ever again. An engine! Everyone shot up immediately, noticing the sound as well.

"What's that?" Tori whispered, as if talking louder would make it disappear. I listened closely.

"A boat," I decided. We all hurried towards the water, searching for anything indicating a boat getting closer. Cat was the first to spot the faint lights coming towards us. Slowly we all started to realize what was happening.

Cat

"A boat!" Robbie screamed. He grabbed my hand and danced with me, only he was going too fast and we both fell down in the sand. I laughed, happy that he was happy. Everyone else was happy too. They were all looking at the little lights on the water. I was a little disappointed it wasn't a hot air balloon, but I was glad we were going home anyway.

Tori

It got closer and closer, until we could see the figure of the boat. It wasn't that big; no cruise ship, but not a rowing boat either. Something in between. Suddenly it stopped, still too far away to see anyone on it. It was a tense moment: were they going to go away again? We all watched as a small shadow figure left the boat and moved towards us. I soon realized it was a rowing boat. And finally, after minutes of tension, the rowing boat stranded, and two people got out, one of them holding a flashlight. They were a man and a woman, I saw.

"Do you speak English?" the woman asked. For a second we were all too stunned to speak. Then Beck stepped forward.

"We do." The people got closer, and the look on their faces told me their intentions were good.

"What are you kids doing here?" the man asked confused.

"Our plane crashed. About a month ago," Beck explained.

There was a short silence. Then Cat asked the question playing in all our minds: "Can you take us home?"

_10 hours later; 3__rd__ person POV_

They were standing at the airport in New York, each with a cup of coffee. None of them was drinking, though. They were all staring anxiously at one of the gates. The one their parents would walk through any minute. People were already flowing out; they had been for a while. Any second now...

Once on the boat, they had immediately set course for New York. The captain and crew had asked little questions; only who they were, and where they had to go. Also they had called the police, who in turn had called all of their parents. Who had, of course, immediately taken the next flight possible. And now they were waiting, fully aware of the looks people were giving them. Not so strange – they hadn't exactly had a chance to clean up yet.

Trina

I practically ran through the gate, not waiting for my parents. I had to know. I had to make sure this wasn't some kind of joke. A very bad one. I searched the enormous hallway with my eyes, looking for my little sister and her friends. It took me a while to recognize them among all the people.

To be honest, it took me a while to recognize them at all! To say they had changed was a huge understatement. Not just the way they looked, although that definitely played a part. It was also the atmosphere hanging around them. I can't exactly explain it, but there was a huge difference with the way they were before. Only a month...

They'd seen me before I saw them. They didn't walk towards me, though. I took a closer look at each of them, finally finding who I'd really been looking for in the first place: Tori. Our eyes locked, and she took a hesitant step towards me. Before she could, however, I was already with her, my arms around her.

"I can't believe you're back," I whispered.

"Me either," she whispered back.

**THE END**

**Thanks to:**

**Quirkista** **DrAmIoNeLoVeR1154** **ClementinePlum** **Sunshine-Midnight123** **vanella** **Jarianator** **CoolBade101** **luisa mendoza** **Love2Write21** **BADExxxxxFOREVER** **hamsterz17705** **Black Angel and Snowflake** **BadeFanForever123525** **twenty four7bade** **Cabbiefan101** **FfionsFangirlFeelsXXX** **Iggyfangirlcraziness** **For taking the time to review, you're all amazing people and your reviews made my day every time!** **And an EXTRA special thanks to **karlaserna **for reviewing on EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER! You're the best! ** **I'm sorry for ending so abrubtly :'( I'm just really out of inspiration.** **Goodbye everyone!** **Xxx Red**


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